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Textbooks and the online reference differ about this and there are more than two answers.

Mithoron
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user3286264
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1 Answers1

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Diamond (carbon) does not melt at 1 atm. It sublimes to vapor.

Using carbon's theoretical phase diagram below (from Wikimedia), "liquid diamond" could be achieved at about 10 GPa (99 thousand atmospheres) and 5000 K (4700 °C).

phase diagram of carbon

Edit:

In fact, heating up diamonds at 1 atm turns them into graphite first. Only further heating would cause sublimation, as expected by observing the phase diagram. Here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7BV3IBfFA

Foo Bar
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Alex
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  • It is 3783 K in reference books – user3286264 Feb 19 '14 at 15:01
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    Note that if heating it in the atmosphere, it will burn to carbon dioxide much before it sublimates to vapour carbon. HEATING DIAMONDS IS A BAD IDEA! – Gimelist Nov 29 '14 at 08:11
  • While I understand that the phase diagram you're using is mainly focused on the high temperature and pressure region, I can't help but feel that the boundaries of the metastable region could use some fine-tuning. Taken literally, it seems to be claiming that diamond isn't (meta)stable at room temperature and pressure(!). (Apparently, the actual thermal stability limit of diamond at low pressure is about 2000 K.) – Ilmari Karonen Feb 23 '16 at 19:29
  • Definition (wikipedia): Sublimation - is the phase transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through the intermediate liquid phase. – rtfminc May 23 '17 at 04:30
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    Minor point: The quoted temperature conversion is mathematically correct, but in all probability no more than two digits are significant. Thus $5000 K=4700°C$. – Oscar Lanzi Oct 22 '17 at 10:01