Covalent bonds in diamond

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PatrickP2
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We all know that when we scratch a diamond with another diamond, millions and millions of covalent bonds are broken. I would like to ask what happens when a diamond burns in the atmosphere at temperatures above 750 C? Does the reaction of oxygen and carbon also break the bonds, or are we dealing with a different phenomenon here?
 
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Yes, explicitly chemical reactions involve the breaking and/or forming of bonds. In the case of diamond, the C-C bonds are broken, and C=O double bonds are formed.
 
A common explanation for the origin of (some) color is that a material absorbs a, say, red photon and an electron moves from one energy level to a higher energy level, the difference in energy being the energy of the red photon. The material then appears bluish having absorbed the red light. What happens to that excited electron? If it just falls down to the original energy level it will emit red light and the material won't have color. There must be other processes. Thank you in...

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