December 2024 | Lab Grown Magazine

December 2024 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 22 Mailed to 24,000 Jewelers Monthly - To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | December 2024 23 Dan Scott, Scott Kay’s former CMO of 10 years now runs Luxe Licensing, an 11-year old NYC-metro marketing, video production and licensing agency. He recently was awarded a Cambridge University honorary partnership, META multistream partnership, and is now an Oxford Press Board Member. While comparisons continue on which “side” is more “eco-friendly” - mined or man-made - no one seems to look past the energy consumption of the typical chemical vapor disposition (CVD) plasma machine. Yes, the energy to power such is normally fueled by electricity, thus fossil fuels are expended. Debates continue on how much energy is exhausted to spin one, let along a factory filled with CVD machines, not to mention the much larger and intense energy requirements of CVD’s predecessor- high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) machines. The Two-Part Story This feature will reveal many developments within the LGD process while comparing current growth formats and calling out the good and the bad. Every item in this two-part feature is fact based, reinforced by research then confirmed by reputable industry sources. To those who have read my years of LGD and Natural Diamond editorial offerings, I constantly note the need for diamond unity. Many have incorrectly assumed I am “pro LGD and anti-Natural.” Again, this is utterly untrue. I remain neutral and have proven on multiple occasions that a harmony between the Natural and LGD must be united. The reason is simple: Within approximately twenty years (or less) Natural Diamonds may actually become rare, unlike the misleading marketing the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has resurrected of late. The more rare Natural Diamonds become, the more expensive they will be, thereby reducing mass consumption by their price tag alone. This will only increase the already out-of-touch costs of fancies to the majority of diamond lovers. One Diamond Basket Since the industry has placed nearly 100% of its financing, time and attention to only one precious gemstone, most jewelry designs sold (and a multitude of watches as well) have reinforced the diamond to be a global staple in our profitability. When that natural resource is expended, what then? How will the jewelry industry maintain itself? History proves any other precious, semi-precious, or crystal/CZ diamond look-alike has not worked to substitute Natural Diamonds. Therefore, only one globally, consumer accepted and desired diamond clone will provide the need for Natural Diamond hybrid and LGD creations to satisfy worldwide/mass consumer diamond desire at affordable prices in the future. Still, LGDs are often positioned as a foe, not a friend, to most Natural Diamond devotees. Though the jewelry industry at large - specifically American- based financed operations – are the very people principally responsible for the invention of the LGD, and oddly the first to point fingers rather than extending handshakes. The Super Diamond Research dating back to the 1980s shows under extreme pressure, a diamond can transform to into an eight-atom body-centered cubic (BC8) or a “super diamond,” one that would dethrone the Natural Diamond or any LGD in its hardness. “The BC8 phase of carbon [at ambient conditions] would produce be a new, super-hard material tougher than diamond,” said Ivan Oleynik, a physics The CVD synthesis process is inefficient when attempting to lower or eliminate it carbon factor. It’s estimated that only 3% of the carbon injected into a reactor is converted into a man-made rough diamond. Regardless of the power source or current CVD technology available, about 97% of carbon is released into the air during the typical LGD growth process. Graphic: Aether Diamonds professor at the University of South Florida, and senior author of a paper published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters , 2024. “[This] discovery could be a game changer for a variety of industries,” noted Darren Orf, contributing editor to Hearst’s Popular Mechanics . Time evolution tests through billions of carbon atoms under extreme conditions continue at California’s National Ignition Facility. Next month, we’ll explore the pros and cons of HPHT vs. CVD, and a proven 100% solar, wind and water powered technology extracting carbon from clouds - cleaning our air one carat at a time. ◊ Supercomputer simulations predicting the synthesis for the elusive eight-atom body- centered cubic (BC8) or “super diamond.” Created to form a 30% more compressed diamond, thus being much harder than any Natural or LGD on earth yet remain in an experimental lab phase. Image:” Mark Meamber Graph: ACS Publications ©2024 American Chemical Society (each obtained by special permissions and not permitted for redistribution.)