Synthetics will drive down the price of diamonds (NOT)

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

The problem with the Vapour Deposition synthesis is that the diamonds come out brown or gray and must then be HPHT treated (more expense) and to date there is not a high success rate at HPHT decolration. Also the method grows wide flat slabs and so depth is a problem. But wide flat slabs of (type II) diamond are the best conductors of heat by about a factor of 4X and perfect for high processing computer chips.

I expect companies exploring this technology would like to attract Venture Capital by focusing on the gem industry which perhaps will lead to additional sources of R&D revenue.
(Note the diamond weights on the attachment)

 

[strmrdr]

With all due respect its way to soon to call a winner in that horse race.
They have come a long way in a short time and will get better as time passes.
Enviremental laws will play in the synthetics favor also and there are getting to be more and more global laws in that area.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Yes you are right, synthetics have only had 50 years to develop. And the CVD family is really young, about 15 I think.

 

[Hest88]

To be honest, I suspect that if they become the norm, I can see natural diamond prices being driven *up* more than down. "Natural" will always have the psychological cachet. Witness natural sapphires and rubies; they are still very much in demand even though the alternatives have been available for a century.

 

[antigoon]

What are two of the biggest scientific areas of endeavor these days? Semiconductors and nanotechnology.

What are two areas which might produce artificial diamonds? Semiconductors and nanotechnology.

Synthetic diamonds are not only useful as gemstones but also as semiconductor substrates. This means that even if the gemstone economics are not immediately there, there is a multi-billion dollar a year industry that still wants this technology.
While nanotechnology often deals with making nano-sized materials, it's also involved in creating materials/molecules/machines one atom/molecule at a time. The creation of a simple carbon lattice could easily be a first attempt at perfecting a new technique.

And once the artificial diamond technology is created for semiconductors, or incidentally by nanotech researchers, it could easily be turned towards gemstones.

Yes, some romantic types will care if their diamonds were created deep within the earth as opposed to in a lab. But other more pragmatic types will think that as long as the 4Cs are satisfied, it doesn't matter where the diamond comes from.

At this point, the natural diamond industry will have to decide whether it's going to compete on price or if it's going to keep higher prices but rely on marketing like "A love so strong that it takes a symbol one hundred million years in the bowels of the earth to express" to distinguish itself from artificial diamonds and justify higher prices. If it does the latter, a tremendous market in passing off artificial diamonds as natural ones will emerge. The natural diamond industry had better start figuring out now (before it's too late) how it can guarantee that individual diamonds are tracked from the mine to the finished product at the grading labs. And how the unforgeable certificates can be guaranteed to match to these diamonds (e.g. gemscan etc.).

So with all due respect to your far greater knowledge of the industry than I will ever have Garry, I strongly believe that to deny that artificial diamonds are coming and will eventually be "perfect" is to put your head in the sand.

 

[purduephotog]

http://cdac.ciw.edu/

just something to glance at. I realize it's still in its infantile stages, but don't doubt the resources that can be brought to bear upon any problem once some of the fundamental issues are resolved.

The biggest (I see) is taking care of the nitrogen aggregation in normal stones. While N2 helps a stone form quickly, it doesn't travel thru the lattice at a normal speed- hence a stone is coloured.

Who knows- there's a dipole moment in Nitrogen- perhaps someone can slap it with a strong enough field to 'assist' it's movement in a HPHT environment.

The afore mentioned link shows a 1b diamond structure- and it's currenly the hardest material known on earth (as in, the testing equipment broke...)