Scientists Create Diamond Films from Tequila

A team of researchers at the University of Nueva Leon near Monterrey in Mexico have proven that ordinary tequila is a key ingredient to making semi-conducting diamonds.

Bar tender, pour me a glass of... diamond maker?

A New Scientist report says that, although diamond material is normally an electrical insulator, it morphs into a semiconductor when the right impurities are added – in this case, tequila.

The research team, led by Javier Morales, injected heated vapor from 80-proof “tequila blanco” into a low-pressure chamber. The resulting carbon material, when deposited on test surfaces, measured positive for having a diamond structure.

"Some kinds of tequila seem naturally to have the right mix of atoms," says Morales.

"The result is certainly funny, but the process seems reasonable," commented physicist Rudolf Pfeiffer of the University of Vienna in Austria. "I don't know of any previous attempts to make diamonds from drinks."

This material could be useful for devices that operate at high temperatures or other extreme conditions, as diamond film, which is expensive and hard to manufacture, is stronger than silicon, New Scientist reported. Diamond films are produced by vaporizing organic material and then controlling how the resulting carbon atoms crystallize.