The next big thing in the jewelry world that is gaining persistent importance in all ramifications is Lab-made diamonds. The unique feature in such diamonds is the potential to be readily available in every season as they are being made in labs which do not need a particular environment for their growth. Lab-made diamonds offer excellent value as well as more affordable as natural diamonds of comparable quality and size.

Lab-made diamonds mostly referred to as or synthetic human-made diamonds have been in the works as early as the 1940s. As a result of their unique characteristics, optical transparency, hardness/use as abrasive, thermal conductivity, and high electrical resistance diamonds were manufactured initially for industrial applications. In December 1954 the most significant breakthrough occurred when the first batch of lab-made industrial diamonds was created which was accepted widely, thereby announcing the first lab-made diamond in February of 1955.

Nonetheless, driven efforts make it a necessity to have a healthy, consistent, and cost-effective supply drove demand, which for so many reasons, has not met the international diamond mining company standards. However, a Swedish electric company had made diamonds two years earlier, and for various reasons, they were unable to announce their accomplishments for two years after the success of GE.

Since the late 1980s, Gem-quality of lab-made diamonds has been available commercially until their quality as well as price in terms of the 4 C’s Color, Clarity, Cut, & Carat Weight recently improved. It is no doubt to save up to 40 percent on diamonds made in the laboratory when compared side-by-side to its mined counterpart.

What are Lab Made Diamonds?

Lab-made diamonds are known as cultured or engineered diamonds which are grown in a high laboratory environment that is well-controlled using advanced technological means that also duplicate the conditions under which diamonds develop naturally when they form in the mantle, beneath the earth’s crust. These lab-made diamonds comprise of carbon molecules arranged in the normal diamond crystal structure, and since they are made of similar material as natural diamonds, they portray the sameoptical and chemical properties.

How are Lab Diamonds Made?

Lab-made diamonds are produced from the tiny carbon seeds of pre-existing diamonds. Moreover, advanced technology – either by extreme heat and pressure or a unique process of deposition known as CVD – also mimics the natural method of the formation of diamonds. Some lab-made diamonds through testimony may also undergo the same treatment of pressure and heat after they have been produced. Lab-made fancy colored diamonds are formed when little amounts of specific trace elements are present during the manufacturing phase of the diamond, just like in nature. In other words, both white and fancy colored lab diamonds, the exact composition of trace elements may differ from their natural diamond counterparts. Lab-made diamonds can only be identified from natural diamonds using specialized equipment that can detect the minor differences in trace elements as well as crystal growth.

Lab-made Diamonds vs. Natural Diamonds

Lab-made diamonds display the same chemical, physical, and optical characteristics as natural diamonds, thereby exhibiting the same scintillation, fire, and sparkle. Making use of a jewelry loupe, these lab-made diamonds are somehow challenging to differentiate from natural diamonds. Lab-made diamonds may display different element traces than natural diamonds that do not affect the appearance of the diamond. Lab-made diamonds can be distinguished from natural diamonds only with tests using specific equipment while Lab-made diamonds ready for purchase should always come with a gem certification identifying them as laboratory-made.

Types

The lab-made diamonds classification types are only done to those gems that are everything diamond-like. Four categories of these diamonds exist in the following, HPHT large single-crystal diamond; HPHT grit; CVD single crystal diamond and CVD polycrystalline diamond.

Just two procedures produce these four men made types of diamonds. Each of the processes results in two different types of gem structures. Developed in 1955, HPHT (high pressure, high temperature) indicates the conditions at which nature uses to produce a natural diamond. Powers of up to five GPA (gigapascals) with temperatures of about 1,500 degrees Celsius bombarded by the raw ingredients inside a large press. The outcomes are small, chips, one micrometer to one millimeter as well as dust known as (HPHT grit). Yellow in color due to the usage of nitrogen during production, the application suitability of HPHT grit depends on the shape and metal content but is most times adopted for abrasives.

HPHT:  Also produces another type of lab-made diamond, the large single gem putting up the measurement to ten millimeters long, these precious stones are a lot larger and can as well reach the quality and purity levels worthy of gemstones. For HPHT to manufacture such a huge diamond, takes a lot of time, as long as seven days some times. This, however, makes a product expensive the more and technically more challenging to develop, therefore HPHT single crystal diamonds are sizably used only in demanding situations. The (HPHT) type 11a, as at 2007, was closed to the highest quality and molecular structure for use in the X-ray tomographic imaging–replacing silicon.

CVD:  In the lab-made diamond types chart polycrystalline diamond is number three. A lesser pressure procedure of making diamonds, chemical vapor deposition, CVD, heats the ingredients and forms a vapor that, one atom at a time, deposits on a seed crystal. CVD instead of in the cubic and single crystal form of natural diamonds, polycrystalline diamond is grown flat, in a wafer of up to five millimeters thick. Depending on the process of production and as large as 30 centimeters (12 inches) across, wafers can be grown. Optical, medical, environmental, and abrasives are just a little of the applications.

CVD single crystal diamond: It is the fourth type of lab-made diamond typically combined on a single crystal diamond substrate; the process of the CVD can also be utilized in other substrates such as sapphires. The size of the subsequent single crystal diamond is small, a few millimeters are meant for electronic applications and sensor. A former Bell Labs scientist in 2005 discovered a way of producing CVD single-crystal diamonds pure and colorless, just like a precious natural stone with the applications in science, this new development additionally skyrockets these fourth type of lab-made diamond into the quality of gemstones.

As improvement goes on in the technology world, so will the impact of lab-made diamond types have on science and gemology as well. Military applications and uses in business are being researched already as new methods in the technology and the world of jewelry. The economic value of mass production of lab-made diamonds may still take dozens of years, but based on the breakthrough presently; success is just a question of time.

Lab-made Diamonds vs. Diamond Simulants

It is essential to take note of the massive difference between a lab-made diamond and diamond simulants. For example, cubic zirconia and moissanite appear to be like jewels yet are not genuine carbon gems. Simulants don’t have a chemical compound and physical properties from everyday treasures and along these lines sell at much lower costs than lab-made precious stones. Simulants can be recognized from common or lab-developed precious stones using just the naked eye.

Regular and lab-developed diamonds have warm conductivity properties that separate them from cubic zirconia with a handheld precious stone analyst. Some lab diamonds, alongside some natural color jewels, might be erroneously recognized as moissanite when using a sure diamond dealer because of the similarities in their electrical conductivity. Be that as it may, gemologists can usually identify precious stone and moissanite because of their different refractive properties, with moissanite being twofold refractive and diamonds being single refractive.

What Colors Are Available?

• White lab-made diamonds

An unadulterated carbon diamond without any polluting influences will review as a vapid jewel. In any case, most of both mined and lab-made precious stones contain impurities, the majority of which are nitrogen. The nitrogen molecules inside the diamond grid make the yellow tint. In case of fancy color precious stones, unadulterated yellow coloring is made. About all jewels, both mined and lab-made, start as yellow diamonds.

All through many years and exposure to pressure as well as heat, mined diamonds split the nitrogen iotas inside their cross-section, rendering the nitrogen molecules capacity to create yellow light. The parting of the nitrogen iotas is the thing that gives the diamond its ability to white sparkling.

In a case of lab-made diamonds, we don’t have a considerable number of years to change over a yellow jewel to white. In any case, the capacity to develop the treasure with practically no nitrogen creates a similar outcome.

Development Time

Growing a white diamond requires an unimaginably controlled condition. The heat and the pressure must stay predictable all through the whole developing procedure. Any variance or change inside the development cell can make the precious stone quit developing or can make substantial considerations.

Separating the nitrogen and boron from the development cell to expel the coloring from the precious stone grid likewise makes the jewel develop more slowly. White diamonds ordinarily take as long as about fourteen days or longer to deliver a 1.0 carat stone.

It is the all-encompassing development time, the need to disengage individual components from the development cell and the interest to keep the pressure and heat predictable that makes growing a white diamonds troublesome, in this way adding to their constrained accessibility.

• Yellow lab-made diamonds

Yellow lab-made diamonds are optically, artificially and physically indistinguishable from yellow earth-mined jewels, however, are offered free of contention by and large 10 percent of the expense. They are accessible in a color range from fancy yellow to fancy striking yellow, in sizes up to 2.0 carats and an assortment of shapes.

Both mined, and lab-made yellow jewels get their coloring from nitrogen. While jewels are comprised of carbon, pollutions inside the stone exist. It is the presentation of these contaminations, for this situation, nitrogen, that will eventually give the jewel it is yellow coloring. As a diamond develops, nitrogen particles will now and then supplant a carbon molecule inside the precious stone’s cross-section structure. When light enters the diamond, the nitrogen will reflect yellow light.

By controlling the measure of nitrogen during the diamonds developing procedure, the color of the completed precious stone can be chosen. The more nitrogen in a diamond, the yellower it will be. A lot of nitrogen and the precious gem will begin to seem dark-colored. Definitely, getters are used during the developing technique to catch excess nitrogen into the development cell. By making using these getters, we can develop precious yellow stones with the most prominent diamond quality hues.

Development Time

It takes five to six days for one cycle in the development machine to deliver harsh enough to slice a 1.0 to 2.0 carat completed precious yellow stone. The nitrogen left in during the developing procedure that gives a precious yellow stone its coloring enables the jewel to become quicker than some other color.

• Blue lab-made diamonds

Blue lab-made diamonds are synthetically, optically, and physically noticeable from blue earth-mined diamonds and are offered free of contention and about 10 percent of the expense. They are usually given in sizes littler than 1.50 carats and arrive in a scope of color fancy light blue to choice extreme blue.

Development Time

It takes seven to ten days for one cycle in the development machine to deliver harsh enough for a wrapped blue jewel up to 1.0 carat in size. The boron presented during the developing procedure that gives a precious blue stone its coloring enables the diamond to become snappier than a white jewel. In any case, it will at present become slower than a yellow gemstone.

Lab-made diamond color scale chart

As you think about a diamond, it’s critical to have confirmation for what you’re looking for. That is the reason why you ought to have an (IGI) International Gemological Institute certification for each lab-made diamond you consider. This varies from our recommendation on unique jewels you ought to consistently look for an AGS or GIA authentication on those. Why IGI for lab-made stones? Since the IGI issues explicit evaluations for lab-made rocks, while the GIA offers a range.

The (IGI) grades diamonds on the accompanying Color size of D to Z, with Z being a jewel with a perceptible yellow or darker coloring.

Pros:

Lab-developed diamonds don’t require mining, which degrades the earth and regularly places laborers in unsafe or unsanitary conditions. While an affirmation like the Kimberly Process decides a precious stone’s root, it doesn’t represent human rights factors. Regardless of substantial industry endeavors in the most recent decade, viciousness and kid work still plague some mining tasks.

A lab-developed diamonds will cost 30 to 40 percent, not exactly a unique jewel of comparable size, coloring, and transparency. Since these precious stones are identical in cosmetics, lab-developed jewels have appreciated soaring prevalence over the most recent five years, with even normal diamonds behemoths like DeBeers getting in on the lab-developed game.

Cons:

Regular diamonds are ending up progressively expensive and costly to mine, which means costs keep on increasing in value. Then again, lab-developed jewels have no stockpile imperatives. While this may sound useful for the lab-developed industry, it could make an issue in the long haul: lab-developed diamonds will keep on deteriorating, which would affect the resale worth and make it all the more expensive for you to redesign later on.

When you purchase a natural diamond, your cash supports individuals who rely upon digging for money. Precious stone Producers Association, an exchange association for large jewel mining organizations, announced that diamond mining makes about 4 billion dollars in income for workers and 6.8 billion dollars through the expansive financial influence in their networks. Alternatively, diamond labs are controlled by well-supported enterprises in created nations. The Diamond Development Initiative, an association, committed to improving working conditions for excavators in creating societies, urged Western customers to avoid the lab-developed diamonds and reserve regular jewels if they are worried about the prosperity of laborers.

While lab-developed diamonds dodge natural issues with mining, they make sustainability issues of their own. The pressure and heat expected to make a lab-made diamonds are equivalent to that of a volcanic emission, which requests gigantic measures of vitality. The HPHT strategy uses up to 700 kWh per carat and CVD can use something like 1,000 kWh per carat, which is sufficient vitality to control a house for a month. Along these same lines, numerous diamonds mines have lower CO2 outflows than precious stone labs. Industry controllers at present are trying different things with affirmations that permit lab-made diamonds makers to mark their organizations as “maintainable” or “eco-accommodating,” yet the Federal Trade Commission has cautioned these makers to avoid those terms until they can demonstrate their items fit the bill.