There’s an alternative to paying for naturally sourced diamonds. It’s choosing loose lab created diamonds or those set on a ring. And they do come out just as brilliant with as much of gem-quality and value. Technology today has made it possible for lab-grown diamonds to almost match the characteristics of a naturally grown diamond even to its molecular structure. Only a gemologist looking through a special device might tell the difference.
It is useful to note the colored diamonds in the market are often synthetic, either through the process of irradiation after synthesis from the inclusion of the element nitrogen or boron or through the process of chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Only 0.01% of naturally occurring diamonds are colored.
The process of irradiation is the result of the industry’s high-pressure high-temperature method or HPHT. The process of chemical vapor deposition use gases such as methane and hydrogen into an enclosed space to split them and form into a plasma when introduced to ignition such as a microwave, a hot filament or laser.
The difference in price between a lab-grown diamond and a natural diamond is about 20 to 40% depending on the color classification it is graded in. While the price difference may make a synthetic lab-grown diamond a little more affordable, a naturally grown diamond’s age of 3.3 billion years might make it truly a rarity with a story, worth its appraised value.
Still, loose lab created diamonds are a diamond of beauty and value.