Bort
| Bort (also boort or boart) | |
|---|---|
 A mixture of bort and gem diamonds (larger inclusions) from the Crater of Diamonds State Park | |
| General | |
| Category | Mineral variety |
| Formula (repeating unit) | C |
| Identification | |
| Color | varies (white to yellowish in powder form) |
| Use/purpose | |
| Major varieties | |
| Similar occurances | |
Bort, boart, or boort is an umbrella term used in the diamond industry to refer to shards of non-gem-grade/quality diamonds. In the manufacturing and heavy industries, "bort" is used to describe dark, imperfectly formed or crystallized diamonds of varying levels of opacity. The lowest grade, "crushing bort," is crushed by steel mortars and used to make industrial-grade abrasive grits. Small bort crystals are used in drill bits. The Democratic Republic of the Congo provides 75% of the world supply of crushing bort.[1][2][3]
Use and application
Apart from the use of bort in the diamond gem industry, where the material is used as an abrasive —close to or the same as the hardness of diamond itself— to scour and polish the various facets of gem stones, in smaller flakes and particles it is also used as an additive for scouring or polishing pastes and agents. Larger particles find their use as a protective edge to drilling bits, saws and other tools and machinery to for longer lasting (physical and economic) lifespan and substantially increase their efficiently (for instance, for tools that drill or saw through concrete or other hard materials).[4]
When bort particles varying from one to two nanometers are added to lubricants such as paraffin oil, these particles will embed themselves into minute irregularities and imperfections of moving-part surfaces, whereas particles that remain suspended in the lubricant oil act as both a polishing agent further smoothening the surfaces, as well as ball bearings between the surfaces that move relative to or revolve withing or around one another. Such nanotechnology applications with parrafin oil containing approximately 1% of such nano-size bort particles can decrease the friction up to half of that without the nano-particles.[5]
See also
- Carbonado (black diamond)
- Synthetic diamond
- Ballas
References
- ^ Spear, K.E; Dismukes, J.P. (1994). Synthetic Diamond: Emerging CVD Science and Technology. Wiley–IEEE. p. 628. ISBN 0-471-53589-3. Archived from the original on 2015-04-25.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Industrial diamond. Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Bort. Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ MINES BUREAU (2010). Minerals Yearbook Metals and Minerals 2010 Volume I . Government Printing Office via Google Books. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-1411334496. Archived from the original on December 30, 2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Ballengee, Jason (2016). "Nanodiamond and Lubrication Applications" (PDF). aiche.org. SP3 NANOTECH, LLC. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
{{cite web}}:|archive-date=/|archive-url=timestamp mismatch; December 6, 2018 suggested (help); Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)
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