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Materials, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing
Materials and how they are made: nanomaterials and their uses in health, smart and advanced materials, composites, technical textiles, and 3D printing. Prelims has asked about nanotechnology in health, the uses of geotextiles and the applications of 3D printing.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2018: applications of 3D printing
- Prelims 2015: nanotechnology in health, targeted drug delivery and gene therapy
Showing 1 of 6 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 August 2026.Show all
Lab grown diamonds
Copy link to Lab grown diamondsPrelims
Natural mines are depleting, and a stone grown in a reactor is the same substance rather than an imitation of it. What separates the two is therefore not quality but provenance, which is where the trade argument sits.
- High Pressure, High Temperature (HPHT) synthesis mimics conditions in the Earth's mantle.
- Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) deposits carbon from a gas onto a diamond seed.
- The grown stone is cheaper than a mined one and easier to trace.
- Conflict diamonds still evade the Kimberley Process, which is part of the case made for the grown stone.
- India is investing in its own production and research.