A sizeable debate has been brought up to date: and what about synthetic diamonds? Will they one day be able to substitute for natural diamonds and compensate for a supply about to run dry 20 years from now? Freeze-frame.
The marketing of an undisclosed batch of synthetic diamonds, first attributed to the American company Gemesis (who denied they were theirs – read the article Gemesis: It’s Not Us…), has recently caused controversy within the diamond merchant fraternity. A news item that will at least have put a key question in the forefront: what should we think of synthetic diamonds? Where will they stand in a not so distant future?
100 years of research to rival with nature
Lab-created using various chemical processes, the cultured diamond, as it is sometimes called (“diamant de culture” is not however the accepted official term in France – Editor’s Note), was at first intended for the industrial world (drilling, polishing, etc.) due to its small size – less than 1 carat, before entering the jewelry trade.
Two techniques essentially allow the creation of “synthetic” diamonds (“synthétique” is the official French term, by decree1), whose structure is in fact almost identical to that of natural diamonds. The HPHT technique (High Pressure – High Temperature), which, with the help of an apparatus called the “Diamond Press”, reproduces the natural phenomenon of carbon crystallization that leads to the formation of diamonds, and also helps to improve the color and the brilliance of colored diamonds. The carbon is thus subjected to temperatures in the region of 1,300/1,600°C and pressure of about 50,000 to 65,000kg/cm2 (synthesis process of rough as well as cut gems; the process used for the color is done at slightly different temperatures and pressure.)
The CVD technique (Chemical Vapor Deposition) has also been used since around 2003 to make synthetic diamonds. Here the process takes place at low temperature, producing thin diamond films by disposition of chemical vapor onto a substrate. The diamonds thus obtained are even purer than those synthesized using the HPHT technique and are difficult to distinguish from “real” ones.
Although the first attempts date back to the end of the 19th century, the first successful syntheses are attributed to the fifties, in Sweden and in the US. In 1955, on 15th February precisely, the American company General Electrics thus stated in a press release that its researchers had succeeded in creating “man-made diamonds, the climax to a 125-year effort to duplicate nature’s hardest and most glamorous substance.”2 At the same time, De Beers begun to produce synthetic diamonds intended for industrial use.
In 1971, it was again to General Electric that the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) attributed the feat of having created the first synthetic gem-quality diamond. The nineties thus marked the introduction of synthetic gem-quality diamonds to the jewelry market, at first colored – essentially yellow – and then colorless today. Even though they remain in the minority, numbers of them on the market are tending to increase…
Among other companies currently marketing jewelry-quality synthetic diamonds 3, we can mention Gemesis (type IIa diamonds; from 0.50 to 1.50 carat for colorless diamonds for example) and Apollo Diamonds as two of the most famous ones.
Better safe than sorry
As techniques have greatly improved with the passing years, the quality of these diamonds is now beyond doubt: they appear astoundingly natural! However, in order to avoid fraud and their sale in place of mined gemstones, synthetic diamonds must be declared as such by certified laboratories such as IGI (International Gemmological Institute), GIA, HRD (Hoge Raad voor Diamant), etc. Only these, with the help of methods proven in laboratories, are in a position to distinguish natural diamonds from synthetic ones via minute characteristics (inclusions, nitrogen aggregation, growth form, etc.)4. They then issue a certificate, a Synthetic Diamond Grading Report, which differs from the one given to natural diamonds and which attests that it is indeed for a “synthetic” diamond. As a precautionary measure, the words “laboratory-grown” are also laser-inscribed next to the report number on the girdle. What is the risk? That their small size allows them to slip through the batches sent to the laboratories for certification.
“Valuable” rivals
A forceful argument, which aims to make synthetic diamonds rivals of natural diamonds: the much lower prices at which they are marketed at the moment (from 20% to 80% cheaper depending on the source – and the lack of transparency concerning the price of diamonds does not make the comparison any easier…), although some are of better quality, and the possible shortage of natural diamonds two decades from now.
This being said, if a diamond became a made-to-order product while retaining its quality, it would equally lose its rarity aspect, which is so dear to diamond enthusiasts and to the industry, and which makes them special. And this is before we consider the impact on its selling price and on its “luxury” product status. But are we perhaps at the dawn of a new era in the diamond industry, where two large-scale markets – one for natural diamonds, the other for synthetic diamonds – could coexist without being detrimental to one another?
Also on this website:
– Shaking off the monkey
– Knuckle headed
– Hundreds of undisclosed lab-made diamonds detected, fears many more are circulating
– “synthetic” for gemstones which are crystallized or recrystallized products and whose production, totally or partially prompted by man, was obtained using various processes, whatever they may be, and whose physical and chemical properties and crystalline structure essentially correspond to those of the natural gemstones that they copy; […]
The use of the following terms: “grown”, “cultivated”, “cultured”, “real”, “precious”, “fine”, “genuine”, “natural”, to designate the products listed in the present article is forbidden.
2. “Man-made diamonds, the climax to a 125-year effort to duplicate nature’s hardest and most glamorous substance, were displayed here today.” (Read the report on the General Electric website.) A Swedish team from Allmanna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget is believed to have preceded them in 1953 but did not comment on the subject.
3. For diamonds of industrial quality among others: Diamonds innovation, Changsha 3 Better Ultra-hard Materials Co. Ltd, etc.
4. De Beers has developed analytical methods, which allow them to detect synthetic gem-quality diamonds. It then won’t, without a doubt, be too long before they create them…
