Synthetic Diamonds – A Major Technological Breakthrough

Synthetic diamonds, also known as engineered or cultured diamonds, are artificially processed in highly controlled laboratory environments. Cultured diamonds exhibit the similar arrangement and chemical properties as that of mined-diamonds. Owing to these, they can prudently be used in many applications replacing mined-diamonds, surging the overall synthetic diamond market across the globe. Since, these diamonds are processed and developed in laboratories under either extreme pressure and heat or a special deposition process, their characteristics and properties can be altered accordingly. Moreover, due to their molecular structure (carbon atoms linked together in a dense tetrahedral arrangement which makes them incredibly strong), synthetic diamonds are referred as one of the world’s most versatile super material. In addition to similar molecular exhibition as that of natural diamonds, lab-developed diamonds tend to be fancier and colorful when small amounts of specific trace elements are present during the growth phase of the diamond, owing to which these diamonds cater to wide range of applications including jewelries. Furthermore, their unparalleled hardness makes them most suitable for cutters to be used in oil & gas drilling, and their high thermal conductivity make them an innovative heat spreader for use in electronics. Moreover, as an electrode, synthetic diamonds can be used to treat waste water. Synthetic diamond, used as a sensing material in electroanalytical application, provides stable electrochemical properties enabling the highest levels of selectivity, sensitivity, and responsiveness. All these are some of the transformative applications being explored with synthetic diamonds, which are likely to drive the global synthetic diamond market in near future. 

Synthetic Diamond Market

CVD diamonds gaining more traction than HPHT diamonds 

Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and High Pressure, High Temperature (HPHT) are two methods that are generally used to process synthetic diamonds. Diamonds processed from CVD differs much from the natural diamonds as well as diamonds processed from HPHT. Though HPHT synthetics have been manufactured since the mid-1950s, CVD synthetics are gaining more traction in the market. This is mainly due to lower cost, minimal and easier process setup, smaller and less expensive requirement of equipment. Surging adoption of CVD method to develop synthetic diamonds are likely to propel the synthetic diamond market in positive direction. CVD method allows to alter the appearance of the diamonds by changing the composition of some chemical compounds in the vacuum chamber. For instances, colorless crystals can be grown if only carbon and some hydrogen are allowed to enter in vacuum chamber, but if nitrogen or boron is introduced into the chamber, yellow or blue synthetic diamond crystals can be produced. Gemological Institute of America, Inc. (GIA) has conducted some tests on synthetic diamonds in recent years and found that the quality of colorless to near-colorless CVD-grown diamonds has improved significantly in the decade since they were introduced. 

Synthetic diamonds likely to disrupt the mined-diamond industry 

Rapidly surging synthetic diamond industry might be a major concern for the mined-diamond industry. Synthetic diamonds exhibit similar molecular structure and so many properties to that of natural diamonds, owing to which these diamonds potentially cater to wide range of applications such as oil & gas industry, electronics, jewelry and many more. In general, electronic industry sees 50% of electronic failures occurring as result of heat, wherein synthetic diamonds can be used owing to their outstanding thermal conductivity. Diamond Producers Association (DPA), organized in May 2015 by seven of the world’s leading diamond companies, estimates that natural mined-diamond industry is doubling down on the potential disruptive threat from the man-made alternative with the Federal Trade Commission, reflecting possible impressive growth of the synthetic diamonds market across the globe.

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