NATURAL VERSUS LAB-GROWN DIAMONDS

Did you know that there is one important difference between natural and lab-grown diamonds? Natural diamonds can contain nitrogen atoms or aggregates. Nitrogen is one of the most common impurity elements in natural diamonds and can affect their color and properties. The presence of nitrogen can lead to a yellow or blue color in the diamond. However, there are also diamonds that are almost free of nitrogen and are therefore colorless or of high purity. However, these diamonds make up only 1.8% of all natural diamonds. The laboratory-grown diamonds are either grown under high temperature and high pressure (HTHP = high temperature - high pressure) or produced using a chemical vapor deposition process (CVD = chemical vapor deposition). The artificially produced diamonds have no nitrogen atoms or aggregates. The testing devices for laboratory-grown diamonds make use of this distinguishing feature by detecting the presence of a nitrogen atom/aggregate in the naturally grown diamonds via UV light refraction.

Procedure for testing laboratory-grown diamonds:

The technology of the testing devices for purely laboratory-grown diamonds (ARI, SDS II) is not suitable for simulants such as zirconia or cubic zirconia and in these cases returns ‘diamond’ as the result. The conventional diamond tester “Diamondmate-A” (PDMT-A)" or the “Adamas” can help here, as it can identify cubic zirconia and colourless sapphires.

1st test step:
Therefore, test the stone in question in a first test step with the “Diamondmate-A”, the “Adamas” or Multitester III to ensure that it is indeed a diamond. If the tester has identified the stone as a ‘diamond’, it means that the stone is either a natural diamond, a lab-grown diamond or a moissanite.

2nd test step:
In a second test step using a tester for lab-grown diamonds (ARI, SDS II), you can then subdivide the natural diamonds from the lab-grown diamonds and moissanites.

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