General Question

alexsingerus's avatar

What are synthetic diamonds?

Asked by alexsingerus (13points) April 15th, 2008
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

8 Answers

peedub's avatar

Diamonds created in a lab made from cubic zirconia or silicon carbide.

wildflower's avatar

A good example of them is Secrets
They’re affordable and there’s no risk of so-called blood-diamonds. If you ask me, it’s a preferable alternative to the real things…

Response moderated
gorillapaws's avatar

Are the genuine diamonds that are lab created also called synthetic diamonds? or do those have a different name? My understanding is that they are 100% real diamonds and can only be told apart from the ones in the earth because they are too flawless to be natural.

shockvalue's avatar

Still not cheap.

They are often used in sandpaper.

eadinad's avatar

There’s also a stone called ‘moissanite’ which is made of silicon carbide. They’re quite similar in appearance to diamonds – even sparklier, I’ve heard – and pretty cheap, comparatively. You can find a lot of examples online.

8lightminutesaway's avatar

@gorillapaws: The real diamonds that are created in the lab still cost about the same because they’re very expensive to make. It requires uber high pressure and whatnot. A chemistry teacher I had, who used to make them, said the only problem was they came out with a yellow tint, which, if I remember correctly, she was due to impurities that couldn’t be removed. Therefore, they used them in tools and such.

stranger_in_a_strange_land's avatar

As opposed to “fake diamonds” like zirconia, lab-created diamonds are just carbon subjected to great pressure under artificial conditions. The way to tell usually, as with lab created rubies, is that they are “too perfect”.

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