Mexico's national drink presents new and unexpected facets.

JURIQUILLA, QUERETARO, MEXICO REUTERS -
Scientists at Mexico's National Autonomous University are
discovering the joys of tequila. While the national drink is well known as an
essential component of the margarita it has now been revealed as an ideal
source for the creation of diamonds.

Luis Miguel Apatiga, a doctor in engineering of materials, directs an
applied physics and technology investigation centre. He and his colleagues
have discovered that tequila contains hydrogen, oxygen and carbon in exactly
the proportions needed to form diamonds. The recipe also requires the
application of extreme heat.

Dr Apatiga had spent many months experimenting with other materials he
had theorised might be able to produce diamonds, but then, when alcohol was
introduced to the experiments, he hit apon the idea of testing tequila.

"Well one day after a long thought process, I decided to buy a
cheap bottle of tequila - not a very good brand - and it was the first one we
experimented with. In fact a student was here. We have a student who is
preparing his doctorate thesis and I discussed this possibility with him. I
said: 'What do you think if we use tequila instead of ethanol and water?
Tequila consists of ethanol and water.'"

At first, Apatiga doubted his experiment would work, as other chemical
ingredients which give tequila its aroma and flavour, could contaminate the
final product but the test was successful.
The experiment consists of injecting very small liquid quantities into
a heating system.

"Basically the equipment works at two temperatures. The first is
280°C and that is the temperature we need so that once the tequila is injected
into the precursor in its liquid form, it evaporates and then we push that
vapour a couple of centimetres further forward into a reaction chamber."

Heating the released vapours from the evaporated tequila at high
temperatures causes carbon molecules to separate and form diamonds.
"This chamber is found at 800°C which is a higher temperature to
when it evaporated. At that temperature, tequila vapour molecules break apart
into smaller fragments and within these fragments, carbon atoms are
found."

The tiny diamonds are then placed on silicon trays.
Diamond films are durable and heat resistant and can be used to create
cutting utensils.

"The primary application one could think of is to use it as a
cutting tool, which would be one of the applications. As we are obtaining it
in fine layers, we could use it to cover scalpels, drills or any cutting tool
and we would have a practically eternal material. It would last a long
time," Apatiga said.

It would also be possible to make electronic circuits from these
diamonds.

"If you add impurities it is possible to turn the material
(diamond) into semiconductors and then a fan of opportunities would open up
because we are not only talking about computer chips but basically any
electronic device and optic-electronic device, which is a device that responds
to light," he added.

While tequila may have proven far more versatile than previously
thought, it's unlikely to produce jewellery-quality diamonds any time
soon.