Tequila Can Be Turned into Diamonds

Everyone knows that a good splash of tequila is the crowning jewel in a first-class margarita. But it turns out, the intoxicating drink could create actual jewels, too. Diamonds, to be exact.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on November 11 2008

Everyone knows that a good splash of tequila is the crowning jewel in a first-class margarita. But it turns out, the intoxicating drink could create actual jewels, too: Diamonds, to be exact.

Strange, but true: a team of scientists in Mexico have just discovered that heating the vapor of an 80-proof bottle of tequila blanco and depositing it on a stainless steel or silicon surface can create a diamond film, thanks to the tequila’s chemical composition of 40 percent ethanol and 60 percent water—the ideal conditions for creating diamonds.

“We were in doubt over whether the great amount of chemicals present in tequila, other than water and ethanol, would contaminate or obstruct the process, ” the study’s co-author, Lius Miguel Apåtiga, told PhysOrg. “It turned out to be not so. The results were amazing, same as with the ethanol and water compound, we obtained almost spherical shaped diamonds of nanometric size. There is no doubt; tequila has the exact proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary to form diamonds.”

Now that they know the process works, scientists can use the tequila-made diamond film substance for everything from semiconductors to radiation detectors. And who knows—maybe even your engagement ring.

Filed under: Science, Weird,

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