The Remarkable Progress of Renewable Energy

[bilby]

Wouldn't the amount of energy required to make the artifical diamond negate any possible benefits?

It's not particularly expensive to make thin layers of diamond by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), which is the method used at Bristol University.

Don't tell de Beers, but you can use CVD to make extremely high quality gems at very low cost too. Such gems are sold as "Created Diamonds".

 

[Swammerdami]

May I hijack the thread to ask a question which has long baffled me?

Wouldn't the amount of energy required to make the artifical diamond negate any possible benefits?

It's not particularly expensive to make thin layers of diamond by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), which is the method used at Bristol University.

Don't tell de Beers, but you can use CVD to make extremely high quality gems at very low cost too. Such gems are sold as "Created Diamonds".

How do experts distinguish "created diamonds" from "the real things"? Are the former TOO perfect?

And how in Heck is there still a market for "real" diamonds?? I suppose it is the high price which creates the incentive to purchase; could an artificial diamond creator appeal to some buyers by bragging that they charge even more than De Beers?

 

[bilby]

May I hijack the thread to ask a question which has long baffled me?

Wouldn't the amount of energy required to make the artifical diamond negate any possible benefits?

It's not particularly expensive to make thin layers of diamond by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), which is the method used at Bristol University.

Don't tell de Beers, but you can use CVD to make extremely high quality gems at very low cost too. Such gems are sold as "Created Diamonds".

How do experts distinguish "created diamonds" from "the real things"? Are the former TOO perfect?

Yup. The standard tests (which measure thermal conductivity) can't separate the two, but "advanced" tests will spot the lack of flaws and trace impurities - these tests can tell you which region, or even which mine, a natural stone came from. A "created" diamond lacks those markers, though I imagine you could introduce those impurities if you wanted to.

And how in Heck is there still a market for "real" diamonds??

Because de Beers have successfully persuaded women that they "deserve" a "real" diamond.

I suppose it is the high price which creates the incentive to purchase; could an artificial diamond creator appeal to some buyers by bragging that they charge even more than De Beers?

They could try, but de Beers have already got the big emotional hook in their real/fake dichotomy.

It's completely irrational, so I guess it's a circumstance ideally suited to weddings and matrimony. After all, if you buy a cake, it costs $X, but if it is a wedding cake, it's $10X. It's the same cake. Blind tasters could never tell the two apart. But "wedding" means "multiply the price by ten".

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Yup. The standard tests (which measure thermal conductivity) can't separate the two, but "advanced" tests will spot the lack of flaws and trace impurities - these tests can tell you which region, or even which mine, a natural stone came from. A "created" diamond lacks those markers, though I imagine you could introduce those impurities if you wanted to.

My understanding is that the real thing has larger crystals, also. But this is not easy to determine.

And how in Heck is there still a market for "real" diamonds??

Because de Beers have successfully persuaded women that they "deserve" a "real" diamond.

Did I marry a heretic? She does not want such stuff! I would be very much in the doghouse for buying her jewelry or flowers.

I suppose it is the high price which creates the incentive to purchase; could an artificial diamond creator appeal to some buyers by bragging that they charge even more than De Beers?

They could try, but de Beers have already got the big emotional hook in their real/fake dichotomy.

It's completely irrational, so I guess it's a circumstance ideally suited to weddings and matrimony. After all, if you buy a cake, it costs $X, but if it is a wedding cake, it's $10X. It's the same cake. Blind tasters could never tell the two apart. But "wedding" means "multiply the price by ten".

Diamonds are an emotional hook, period.

 

[steve_bank]

The industrial diamond market is multi billions.

You can go online and buy diamond saws.

I always thought the diamond cartels to some degree controlled the supply to keep prices high for the jewelry market.

The difference between lab grown gem quality diamonds and nartural diamonds appears to be uniqueness.

To me the value of diamond jewelry has always been mostly hype.