The diamond synthesisers
Nina Notman takes a whistle-stop tour of the synthetic diamond industry and learns about some of the applications its lab-grown diamonds are being used for
The rarity of diamonds has historically contributed to their appeal, but in the 1950s scientists began a slow-growing revolution that changed the diamond industry forever. Today, diamonds are routinely grown in the laboratory with the majority of these stones having industrial uses, ranging from saw blades to heat spreaders for advanced computer chips to water purification. And increasingly, lab-grown diamonds are also being used as gemstones.
Lab-grown diamonds are the real deal. They are not to be confused with simulant diamonds, such as cubic zirconia. Both diamonds grown in the laboratory and natural diamonds are carbon crystals with a face-centred cubic crystal structure. Because their chemical make-up and structure are the same, synthetic diamond gemstones cannot be distinguished from natural diamonds with the naked eye.