Glittering Stones >> Synthetic Diamond

Synthetic diamond

Synthetic diamond is diamond, which produced through chemical and physical processes in a laboratory. Like physically occurring diamond it is composed of a three-dimensional carbon crystal. Synthetic diamonds are also called cultured diamonds, manufactured diamonds, and also artificial diamonds.

Synthetic diamonds were first produced on February 17, 1954 in Stockholm, Sweden by the QUINTUS project of ASEA, Sweden's chief electrical manufacturing company using a bulky apparatus designed by Balzac von Platen. Weight was maintained within the device at an estimated 84,000 atmospheres for an hour. A few small crystals were produced. The discovery was reserved secret.

Nevertheless, General Electric researchers reported their own winning diamond synthesis in Nature. The production of lesser synthetic diamonds and particularly diamond dust has become a significant industry with General Electric at the forefront. General Electric, along with Sumitomo Electric and De Beers marketed their synthetic stones as heat sinks for electronics and old them solely for research purposes. Significantly, the preponderance of these synthetic diamonds is not of gem quality. As of 2003, two companies have introduced high-quality synthetic diamonds to the wide-ranging market.

While visiting Moscow in 1997 someone asked Carter Clarke if he required buying a diamond making machine. He brought the machines and the scientists to Sarasota, Florida and started the first diamond making company, Genesis. Genesis grows diamonds in high-pressure, high-temperature crystal growth chambers that resemble washing machines. The machine bathes a tiny sliver of natural diamond in molten graphite at 1500 ºC and 57,000 atm. This produces a 2.8-carat rough diamond which can be cut to 1.5 carats. Genesis diamonds have a yellow tint which is unusual in natural diamonds and therefore a valuable aesthetic trait.