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Diamonds, like gold or platinum, have always been highly valued in society, curiously more for their ornamental and ritual value than for their intrinsic utility. Beyond their shine and reflections, what has truly made these materials valuable throughout history has been their scarcity and the difficulty involved in their extraction.
Los diamantes, al igual que el oro o el platino, siempre han sido muy apreciados en la sociedad, curiosamente más por su valor ornamental y ritual que por su utilidad intrínseca. Más allá de los brillos y reflejos, lo que verdaderamente ha hecho valiosos estos materiales a lo largo de la historia ha sido su escasez y la dificultad que implica su extracción.
Since the 1950s we have been looking for ways to produce artificial diamonds and we have actually succeeded, but artificially obtained diamonds are very small and contain a large amount of impurities, so their quality was overwhelmingly inferior to natural diamonds.
Desde la década de los cincuenta hemos estado buscando la manera de conseguir producir diamantes artificiales y realmente lo hemos conseguido, pero los diamantes obtenidos de manera artificial son muy pequeños y contienen una gran cantidad de impurezas, por lo que su calidad era abrumadoramente inferior a los diamantes naturales.
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But seven decades have passed since the 1950s and technology has evolved incredibly, so that we are now able to produce diamonds in the laboratory that are not only cheaper to obtain and just as beautiful as natural ones, but also have superior optical, chemical, physical and electrical properties.
Pero desde los años cincuenta ya han pasado siete décadas y la tecnología ha evolucionado de forma increíble, de manera que ahora ya somos capaces de producir diamantes en el laboratorio que no solo son más baratos de obtener e igual de bonitos que los naturales sino que, además, tienen unas propiedades ópticas, químicas, físicas y eléctricas superiores.
There are two main methods to produce these diamonds:
1- Chemical vapour deposition (CVD): This process involves breaking down carbon-containing gas (such as methane) in a vacuum chamber to deposit layers of carbon onto a diamond seed, creating a diamond crystal.
2- High pressure high temperature (HPHT): The way diamonds form naturally on Earth is recreated in the laboratory by applying high pressures and temperatures to a diamond seed.
Para producir estos diamantes hay dos métodos principales:
1- Depósito químico de vapor (CVD): Este proceso implica la descomposición de gas que contiene carbono (como el metano) en una cámara de vacío para depositar capas de carbono sobre una semilla de diamante, creando un cristal de diamante.
2- Alta presión y alta temperatura (HPHT): Se recrea en laboratorio la forma en que los diamantes se forman de manera natural en la Tierra, aplicando altas presiones y temperaturas sobre una semilla de diamante.
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Lab-grown diamonds can be purer than natural diamonds because the controlled lab process reduces impurities and flaws common in natural diamonds. These flaws are known as “inclusions,” and synthetic diamonds can minimize or eliminate these problems.
Los diamantes creados en laboratorio pueden ser más puros que los naturales, ya que el proceso controlado en laboratorio permite reducir las impurezas y defectos comunes en los diamantes naturales. Estos defectos son conocidos como “inclusiones”, y los diamantes sintéticos pueden minimizar o eliminar estos problemas.
From an aesthetic point of view, laboratory diamonds can reach the highest standards, in fact, some laboratory diamonds have a higher clarity grade than natural ones and at a much lower cost. But the best of all is that, if this goes ahead, all the irregularities and injustices that are involved in the trade of natural diamonds can be eliminated.
Desde el punto de vista estético, los diamantes de laboratorio pueden alcanzar los más altos estándares, de hecho, algunos diamantes de laboratorio tienen un grado de claridad superior al de los naturales y a un coste mucho más bajo. Pero lo mejor de todo es que, si esto prospera, se podrán eliminar todas las irregularidades e injusticias que implica el comercio de los diamantes naturales.
More information/Más información
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/lab-grown-diamonds/
I learned that diamonds can be made in the lab. Thank you for this information as well. Very good post
Ah diamonds were a smashingly successful marketing ploy to assign a premium value to something and drain money out of the sentimental ornament lovers.
Synthetic diamonds sounds like vegan leather (aka plastic yall!)to me.
Neat to read about the process and hopefully it just makes jewelry/rings more affordable for people looking to reward their other half.
If at least it serves to stop some people from making money at the expense of the lives of others, that would be quite an achievement.
Thanks for your comment.
I am so sure that so much of time will have been invested in making those diamon