The Best Lab Grown Diamonds “Educational Center”

This atomic arrangement is possible because carbon atoms can have four covalent bonds. A covalent bond is a chemical bond that occurs between two nonmetal atoms where they share a pair of electrons.

Carbon atoms are capable of having four covalent bonds, and thus share four pairs of electrons. When this happens the atoms achieve a state of relative stability. The atomic structure of a mined diamond or the best lab-grown diamonds in jewelry are the same.

Hardness and Density: The bonds between carbon atoms formed in tetrahedral arrangements create one of the strongest atomic structures. It causes all diamonds, both natural and lab-grown diamonds, to have a relatively high density at 3.51 gm/cm3 compared to 2.26 gm/cm3 for graphite, another crystalline form of carbon. Their density is the reason water (with a density of 1.0 gm/cm3) does not cling to the surface of a diamond.

This structure causes diamonds to be the hardest substance known to exist, at a rating of 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. As a result, a diamond can only be scratched or cut by another diamond.

One very unique property of a diamond’s atomic structure is that it allows light to pass through completely, though that structure also slows and bends the light, what is called refraction. A diamond has a refractive index of 2.417, which is how much slower the speed of light is as it travels through a diamond than its speed as it travels through air. Their structure separates visible light wavelengths because it takes more time for certain colors of light to pass through than others.

This is why higher end natural and the best lab-grown diamonds in jewelry are clear crystals that refract and reflect light like prisms, creating a diamond's fire—their ability to present colored light waves separately. By cutting a diamond just right, light will bounce off certain surfaces and be bent back through, making it appear as though more light is shining out from the top. The importance of cut is discussed at length further down.

Ubiquitous today in fine jewelry, diamonds are a recent addition to the standard fare of glamor. Discovered in India more than 2500 years ago, they were only available from India until the 17th century and were always extremely rare until the 19th century. Many attempts over millennia were made to produce diamonds without mining them. All failed until recently.

During the Portuguese conquest, exploration for more deposits found diamonds in Brazil. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, diamond deposits discovered in South Africa dwarfed any previously recorded, and further discoveries of diamond deposits around the world flooded the market, making them widely available for the first time. Today more diamonds (recently as much as 28,000 tons) are mined than gold (recently 2500 to 3000 tons).

While the desire to make the best lab-grown diamonds, at one's leisure, and to one’s reliable and repeatable benefit has captured the imagination of alchemists, scientists, writers and poets for millennia, only in the last century have they become a reality. In the 1950s, researchers from GE were finally able to grow these pure carbon crystals in their laboratories. Today gem-quality and industrial diamond crystals are grown in labs across the globe.

In the earth, diamonds form when carbon undergoes extreme heat and pressure. This happens often at the border between the earth’s crust and its upper mantle. Depending on the conditions it may take many millions of years or as little as a few weeks or even hours for diamonds to form naturally. Under the same strain, many are also destroyed.

From the depths of this dark and violent birth some diamonds were lifted up to the earth's surface millions and billions of years ago, in near-apocalyptic volcanic eruptions that dwarfed most of those that have occurred in the 200,000 odd years since modern humans appeared.

These cataclysmic events brought up diamonds that formed deep inside the earth, and buried them close to the surface trapped in volcanic detritus. The detritus is known as kimberlite and lamproite, and it filled the “pipes,” which are the holes punched upwards in the earth's surface by these particular types of volcanic eruptions.

Today we mine diamond-bearing kimberlite and lamproite pipes, and alluvial (river) deposits washed down from the pipes, in countries all over the world. The largest and most diamondiferous regions are located in Africa, North America, Siberia and Australia.

Diamonds are mined for their beauty and use in jewelry, as well as for their durability, hardness and other chemical and optical properties that make them well-suited for industrial and technological applications. Only about 30% of diamonds mined worldwide are considered beautiful enough to be gem-quality.

HPHT stands for High Pressure, High Temperature, and refers to one common method for lab-grown diamond production.

It was the first method created for lab-grown diamond production and is based on the natural forces that produce diamonds within the earth.

In the HPHT process, extreme pressure and immense heat are focused onto a piece of raw carbon inside a cubic presIn the HPHT process, extreme pressure and immense heat are focused onto a piece of raw carbon inside a cubic press. Inside this raw carbon, which can be graphite, a seed diamond has been placed. The seed may be from a mined diamond, or from a previously grown lab diamond. om a previously grown lab diamond.

Over several weeks the pressure and heat force the atoms in the raw carbon to separate and rebond, crystallizing on the seed diamond and continuing its tetrahedral structure of atoms, forming a new diamond crystal.

CVD stands for Chemical Vapor Deposition and refers to another common method of lab-grown diamond production.

In CVD production, a diamond seed (either from a mined diamond or a lab diamond) is placed in a vacuum chamber where carbon-rich gas (such as methane or carbon dioxide) is bombarded with microwaves. As the bonds holding the carbon atoms together in the gas are broken, they fall like snow onto the diamond seed and crystallize, continuing its tetrahedral atomic structure.

Once the diamond has grown inside an HPHT cubic press or CVD growing chamber, it is processed almost exactly the same as a natural diamond. It is cut and polished into a shape that will optimize its optical properties, and then sold to a wholesaler and later a retailer. Finally, a jeweler places it in an engagement ring or other fine jewelry.

A crystalline form of Silicone Carbide, originally synthesized in 1893 by Henri Moissan, it has been rarely found in nature, and only until recently was its synthesis cost effective enough to produce gem quality jewels. It is the second hardest substance in the world after diamonds, and is higher on the refractive index.

The crystalline form of zirconium dioxide, it is denser than a diamond, not as hard, and has a similarly high refractivity. The most common substitute for diamonds.

White sapphires are, as implied, sapphires that are white or colorless. They come from the corundum family of minerals that include ruby, which is all red corundum, and sapphire, which is all other colors. White sapphires are 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness, the third most hard after moissanite and diamonds, but do not have the same level of optical properties or equal the scintillation, brilliance and dispersion of a real diamond.

Quartz, also known as rock crystal, is a translucent mineral found all over the world that has been used for jewelry for many thousands of years. Some quartz crystals mimic diamonds so well that they are even referred to with diamond in the name. Herkimer Diamonds and Cape May diamonds, both of which are quartz crystals, are among the most prized for diamond simulants since they naturally form in shapes resembling diamonds and have exceptional clarity.