ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2004) — Diamonds are getting bigger, more colorful and cheaper, thanks to chemistry. A favorite gem at Valentine's Day is getting a makeover with synthetic diamond making processes, according to the Feb. 2 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

The diamond-making business has been around for years and although synthetic diamonds had many important uses, including saw blades, drill bits and exfoliants, they were tiny and not gem quality. Only recently has chemistry been able to grow large, gem quality stones at approximately one-third the price of mined diamonds, says C&EN.

Companies such as Gemesis in Florida and Apollo Diamond in Boston are now creating lab-grown diamonds that can be produced to more than a carat in size and are virtually indistinguishable from their mined counterparts, says the newsmagazine. They are chemically and physically true diamonds.

Synthetic diamond-makers start with a tiny diamond "seed" around which the new diamond grows. But that's not chemistry's only role in the diamond market. Even natural diamonds can be changed with chemistry, says the newsmagazine.

Colored diamonds, which are valuable and very rare, can be created by introducing carefully controlled elemental "impurities" into the stone, says C&EN. For instance, nitrogen produces a yellow stone. Infusing boron into the growing diamond produces a blue gem.

For more information, see:

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8205/8205diamonds.html

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Related Stories

New Process Promises Bigger, Better Diamond Crystals (Oct. 28, 2008) — Researchers have developed a new technique for improving the properties of diamonds -- not only adding sparkle to gemstones, but also simplifying the process of making high-quality diamond for ...  > read more

Hope Diamond's Fiery Red Phosphorescence Key To Fingerprinting (Jan. 7, 2008) — Shine a white light on the Hope Diamond and it will dazzle you with the brilliance of an amazing blue diamond. Shine an ultraviolet light on the Hope Diamond and the gem will glow red-orange for ...  > read more

Point Defects in Super-Chilled Diamonds May Offer Stable Candidates for Quantum Computing Bits (Oct. 13, 2011) — Scientists test how the energy levels of electrons trapped in a defect in the diamond matrix shift with changing ...  > read more

Diamonds Unlikely In Gas Giants Like Uranus (July 16, 2007) — A new study finds that diamonds probably don't crystallize in the atmospheres of planets such as Uranus and Neptune. The conclusion is contrary to recent speculation that small diamonds would ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily