A crystal is solid with regular geometry formed by the process of crystallization. The periodic and repetitive arrangement of atoms or molecules in a crystal. For the differences of single crystal diamond and polycrystalline diamond, please read it as below.
1. Different production methods: Single crystal diamond is synthesized from graphite by a six-sided top pressing method. Polycrystalline diamond is synthesized by the explosion. Polycrystalline diamond is just a diamond polymer made by sintering a single-crystal diamond with a binder at high temperature and pressure.
2. From a microstructure perspective, polycrystalline diamond has more edges and ground surfaces than a single-crystal diamond. And in the polishing process, the grinding degree of these two different crystals is different.
Each crystal of polycrystalline diamond has a grinding force, and coarse particles will break into smaller particles and fall during the grinding process. Single crystal diamond is not.
3. The structure of polycrystalline diamond also has certain advantages. This advantage makes it widely used in the grinding and polishing of optical crystals, sapphire substrates, and the electronics industry.
4. The morphology can be seen under a scanning electron microscope. Different crystallography presents different morphologies. For a single crystal, there is only one crystal morphology, such as 100 or 111 crystal faces, while polycrystalline means there are two or more crystal types. This is the characteristic of the crystal itself! XRD can also detect it. Widely used in the manufacture of petroleum, geological drill bits, diamond processing, and machining tools.
