Right now, one in every four diamonds on sale around the world is a blood diamond – mined in a war zone and sold to finance armed conflict and civil war.
Many People want to avoid buying this blood diamond. But, it is nearly impossible to figure out the difference between a clean and a dirty diamond.
So, the market for lab-made artificial diamonds is slowly but surely growing.
Scientists are creating lab-grown diamonds in microwave. The process works by placing a tiny fragment of diamond (called a carbon seed) into a microwave along with varying amounts of a carbon-heavy gas – methane is most commonly used.
The gas mixture is heated to very high temperatures in the microwave to produce a plasma ball, and inside this, the gas breaks down and the carbon atoms crystallize and accumulate on the diamond seed, causing it to grow.
The process can take up to 10 weeks to produce a marketable diamond, but it works so well, experts reportedly need a machine to tell the lab-grown gems apart from natural ones sourced from mines or riverbeds.
It’s estimated that by 2026, the number of lab-made diamonds will skyrocket to 20 million carats.
News Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/how-artificial-diamonds-are-made-microwave-methane-gas-lab-ethical
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