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by truncheon 3438 days ago
Somewhat, yes. It seems that graphite is a somewhat more relaxed state than carbon's diamond crystal allotrope.

Both burn, and can be vaporized with LOX/acetyline torches:

http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1...

But apparently, over long periods of time, and unless coerced, carbon prefers to be graphite and so, diamonds can decay as such. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_properties_of_diamond...

Hence why graphite is generally more plentiful than diamonds.

1 comments

Coal isn't graphite though.

And you're talking about burning, not storage. Coal produces lots of dust and debris. I'm sure diamond would produce some dust at volumes.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-coal-an...

Anyway, it's fantasy because I'm fairly confident we're not going to turn CO2 into mountains of diamonds in my lifetime!