What Is A Lab Grown Diamond? | The Sparkling Rise Of Man-Made Diamond
What are lab grown diamonds? The easy answer is that lab grown diamonds are real, just like natural diamonds, but there are some key differences. Learn more here!
What Is A Diamond Grown In A Lab?
Lab-grown diamonds, also called cultured diamonds, have been around for a while, but they have only recently become more widely known about. So, let’s get straight to the point: What are lab-grown diamonds? How are they different from natural diamonds?
Lab-grown or cultured diamonds are the same as natural diamonds, except they are grown in a lab from a diamond seed instead of dug up from the ground. Almost all diamonds are made of pure carbon. Because of this, the properties of mined diamonds and diamonds made in a lab are the same. They use the same natural process that makes diamonds from the Earth, but they cost up to 75% less. Let’s compare how diamonds are made from the Earth to how they are made in a lab.
Over billions of years, diamonds form deep in the Earth’s crust. Diamond mining has essential effects. Mined diamonds, also called “blood diamonds,” destroy habitats and animals in the area and put workers’ health at risk.
Are Diamonds That Are Made In A Lab The Same As Diamonds Found In Nature?
Short answer: yes. Lab-grown diamonds are still deemed natural because their chemical makeup is similar to mined diamonds. When put next to each other, a lab-grown gem and a natural gem of the same grade will look the same. They are identical in every way, apart from the fact they are grown in a lab.
How Are Diamonds Grown In A Lab?
Lab-made diamonds are made the same way natural diamonds are: by copying the steps that lead to the formation of natural diamonds. Natural diamonds form when carbon atoms are subjected to a lot of heat and pressure for a long time. This process takes millions of years and turns carbon atoms into the beautiful and fascinating gemstones we call diamonds.
The same happens when diamonds are made in a lab, but it takes only a few weeks instead of millions of years. A tiny piece of diamond, called a “diamond seed,” is used to make an artificial diamond. This seed is put in a sealed chamber and made to look like the Earth’s crust.
The seed, covered in pure carbon, will chemically change into an artificial diamond like a natural diamond. High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) and Chemical Vapour Deposition are the two ways diamonds are made in a lab (CVD).
HPHT puts a lot of heat (around 1,500 degrees Celsius, or 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressure (1.5 million pounds per square inch) on the diamond seed and the carbon atoms that cover it. On the other hand, CVD uses less heat and pressure. Instead, it uses a mixture of chemical gases that break down and harden into crystallised carbon atoms.
Both methods end up with the same thing: an artificial diamond made from scratch in a few weeks.
Do Lab Grown Diamonds Cost Less?
Lab grown diamonds are a lot cheaper than natural diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds can be 30% to 70% less expensive than natural diamonds, depending on their size, colour, and clarity.
If you want to invest in diamonds and are curious if lab-grown diamonds will keep their value over time, we recommend going with the natural ones. Lab-grown diamonds will lose value over time because they are less rare or valuable than natural stones.
Natural Diamonds Vs Diamonds Made In A Lab
Besides the big difference in how they are made, a few other things set a lab-grown diamond apart from a natural one.
Price
Natural diamonds are rare, which is one reason they are so expensive. They depend on complicated and expensive diamond mining operations, and there’s no telling what will come out of the ground.
There are a limited number of natural stones on Earth, and each is made differently. Because of this, the qualities used to grade gemstones will also be unique. Other things that add to their price are the time and energy it takes to mine and polish the stones, as well as the strategic, but sometimes questionable, origins, control, and marketing of the diamond market itself.
Because the same supply chains don’t control them, lab diamonds will cost less than natural diamonds, sometimes up to 50 percent less than a natural stone of the same grade. Technological advances have also made it easier to make diamonds in a lab.
How they are made
Most of the natural diamonds on the market today are made in the Earth’s mantle, an intense layer. After billions of years of intense heat and pressure, carbon atoms rearranged themselves in a way that made a diamond. In parts of the world where the conditions and temperatures were right for diamonds to form, kimberlite pipes brought the stones closer to the surface after deep-source volcanic eruptions. During the process, diamonds are broken into smaller pieces than big ones. The precious stones are then dug out of these vast, deep craters.
On the other hand, lab-grown diamonds are diamonds that are grown in a lab.
A process called chemical vapour deposition is the most common way to do it. You start with a skinny slice of a diamond that already has the crystalline structure of a diamond. This is often called the “seed” of the diamond, and it is made of pure carbon from a natural or lab-made diamond.
The seed is put in a vacuum, and carbon molecules attach to it. It’s almost like making a diamond with a 3-D printer. Once the diamond is “grown” in this chamber, it can be cut and polished just like a natural diamond. And since a lab-grown diamond is still made of pure carbon, it is chemically the same as a natural diamond.
The first lab created diamond was made in the 1950s. However, it took about sixty more years to make gem-quality diamonds, which means a diamond with enough colour and clarity to wear on your finger.
Clarity
Many of the same grading agencies grade lab made diamonds using the same methods and standards they use for natural diamonds. This is important because if these institutions that set standards use the same scales to judge lab-grown and natural diamonds, then there are no differences in the 4Cs (cut, clarity, colour, and carat).
Because lab-grown diamonds are grown instead of made, they will also have “flaws” or “inclusions” that affect how sparkly and clear a stone is. The clarity grade of a stone goes down as the number of inclusions increases. Clarity grades for lab-grown diamonds range from Flawless (F1) to Included 3, just like they do for natural diamonds (I3).
Durability
Carbon is the only thing that lab grown diamonds are made of, just like natural diamonds. They are still the most challenging things on Earth, with a ten on the Mohs scale, making them as hard to break as a natural diamond.
Colour
Same thing here: when it comes to colour, a high-quality lab-grown diamond will be graded on the same scale as a natural diamond. There is no visual difference between a lab-grown and a natural diamond, and most couples seek out gems of both varieties graded between G and J, which are near colourless. Actual colourless diamonds, graded from D to F, are scarce and expensive.
The Pros of Diamonds Made in a Lab
Less money is spent on lab-grown diamonds.
The price is a benefit of lab-grown diamonds. Lab grown diamonds are costly, but they can be priced similarly to natural diamonds of the same quality. Even though lab-grown diamonds have the exact capital costs as natural diamonds, the supply chain is much shorter. Since lab-grown diamonds don’t need to be mined, they pass through fewer hands along the way. This makes them less expensive in the end. The prices of natural diamonds also show how rare they are. Natural diamonds are made deep in the Earth, and volcanic eruptions are the only way to get them close enough to the surface so they can be mined. Lab-grown diamonds are not dependent on nature because they are made by individuals using science and technology. This means that there are more lab-grown diamonds, which makes them less expensive.
Differences between real diamonds and those that are grown in a lab
Despite what you might think, “grown in a lab” does not mean “fake.” A diamond made in a lab is almost identical to a diamond found in nature. So, buying a lab-grown diamond is better than buying something made in a lab, like cubic zirconia. A diamond that is made in a lab is a diamond, both chemically and physically. It is grown in a controlled environment using technology that mimics how a natural diamond forms.
Lab-grown diamonds look just like diamonds that come from the ground. Only where they came from is different. Because lab-grown diamonds are almost the same as natural diamonds, they have the same qualities, like how hard they are. On the Mohs scale, natural diamonds and diamonds made in a lab are a 10. That means you can wear a lab-grown diamond daily with the same peace of mind as a natural diamond.
The Cons of Diamonds Made in a Lab
Lab made diamonds don't have the same beauty as natural diamonds
Another big reason not to buy a lab grown diamond for your proposal is that many women don’t want them. Compare a fake Louis Vuitton bag to the real thing.
Surveys all over the country show that most women still want natural diamonds. Only 16% of women in a 2018 survey by the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) said they thought lab-grown diamonds were “real” diamonds. This is another reason women choose to buy natural diamonds 90% of the time.
Diamonds have always been fascinating because they are a natural wonder that took millions of years to form. They lose that charm when made in large quantities in a lab or, even worse, a factory.
Lab Grown Diamonds Might Be a Bad Financial Decision
When you buy a natural diamond, you buy something that will keep its value over time, not so with diamonds made in a lab. As we’ve already said, lab grown diamonds are diamonds made by people in a lab or factory. Currently, the technology is new, “cutting edge,” and expensive. But one thing to think about is that, in the past, all new technology started expensively, got more straightforward, and became very cheap. This means that lab-grown diamonds may become very cheap, and diamonds bought today will also lose a lot of value.
Also, lab-grown diamonds don’t have a limited supply like natural diamonds, so there’s no guarantee that they’ll be worth anything in the future because there will always be many of them. So, let’s look at a specific case. Say you pay $5,000 for a 1-carat diamond made in a lab instead of $7,000 for a natural diamond.
You might save some money on a lab-grown diamond today, but it might be worth little in the future. On the other hand, a natural diamond will always be worth what you paid for it.
Lab Grown Diamonds May Not Be The Eco-Friendly Choice
Most of the time, people choose artificial diamonds because they think they are better for the environment. But this is a contentious issue, and the evidence on both sides can be wrong. To make lab-grown diamonds, a tremendous amount of energy is needed. Most of them are made in factories by machines that always need power. Even though different factories use different amounts of energy, nothing suggests that artificial diamonds are better for the environment.
Many people have asked why the lab-grown diamond industry isn’t more widely disseminated. Many labs use potentially dangerous gases like methane to get carbon from rocks. There isn’t much information about where these gases come from or how they are handled, and the process uses a lot of energy, requiring giant “ovens” to run at around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though it may not be clear which is better for the environment—mining or making in a lab—it is not true that lab-grown is always the more “sustainable” option.
Why Lab Grown Diamonds Are The Superior Choice
Lab grown diamonds are affordable, don’t have any problems with mining, and are durable, beautiful, and expensive. Why wouldn’t you like it? Expert gemologists can’t tell the difference between mined diamonds and those made in a lab. Which means that no one else will either!
When put next to each other, they are the same. When you look at lab-grown diamonds, you can see that they have the same chemical structure as diamonds that come from mines. Aside from price, the only difference between mined and lab-grown diamonds is their origins.
When you compare lab-grown diamonds to diamonds that were mined, it’s easy to see why lab-grown diamonds are better.
Conclusion:
Lab grown diamonds can be a good choice for people who want to buy diamonds at a lower price. They are great for ornamental and decorative jewellery, and customers who want to buy more giant stones can get their hands on them more easily.
But most people who buy diamonds for the emotional value of owning something unique and rare choose the natural kind. After all, these rocks are billions of years old and were made by natural forces that can’t be made again. Natural gems of good quality are also suitable investments because their value can only go up over time.
FAQs
How long does it take to make a diamond in the lab?
This mostly depends on how big the diamond is in carats and how it was made. It takes about two weeks to make a 1ct white diamond, but sometimes it can take up to a month for more giant stones.
Should you choose a diamond that was made in a lab?
No matter what kind of diamond you buy, what matters most is that you choose beautiful jewellery that speaks to you. Minors and lab-grown diamonds are genuine, so the choice is up to you. You have more options now.
Like mined diamonds, do lab-grown diamonds come in different qualities?
Yes. Like natural diamonds, they can have tiny differences in colour or flaws called “inclusions.” This affects their colour and clarity grades, affecting how much they cost. Like natural diamonds, our gemologist carefully chooses each lab-grown diamond by hand to ensure it is high-quality.
Do lab-grown diamonds look like diamonds that were mined?
Yes. They are the same as mined diamonds because they have the same physical and chemical properties. The only way to tell them apart from mined ones is to use special lab equipment.