Diamond Simulants: | Moissanite

Moissanite

Gem-grade Moissanite (Silicon Carbide or Carborundum), manufactured by C3 and Cree Research, was introduced to the jewelry market in 1998. Moissanite was named after French chemist Dr. Henri Moissan (above, left) who won the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his discovery of a new mineral (moissanite-6H) found within meteorite fragments of the ancient Barringer meteor crater (above, center) near Winslow, Arizona. Moissanite, found only in iron-nickel meteorites, is classified as an element rather than a compound.

Moissanite has a hardness of 9.25 on the Mohs scale, while diamond has a hardness of 10. Moissanite is doubly refractive and the refractive index of Moissanite is 2.65 to 2.69. The Toughness of Moissanite is Excellent. Colorless synthetic Moissanite has the appearance of colorless diamond and is more difficult to detect than CZ.

Diamond Simulants: Cubic Zirconia

Cubic Zirconia

To the average consumer, Cubic Zirconia (CZ) is the most familiar type of diamond simulant on the market. While a synthetic diamond is a man-made recreation of an actual carbon-based diamond, Cubic Zirconia (Zirconium Oxide ZrO₂) has a completely different chemical structure, and CZ has a hardness of only 8.3 on the Mohs scale, while diamond has a hardness of 10. The toughness of Cubic Zirconia is rated as good.

Synthetic Diamonds

Synthetic Diamonds & Man-Made Diamond Simulants

The First Synthetic Diamonds

The process of creating man-made diamonds (aka cultured diamonds, lab diamonds) was first conceived by French chemist Henri Moissan in 1892. With Moissan's process, tiny fragments of synthetic diamond were created by heating charcoal, or carbon to an extremely high temperature (4000º C) in a cast iron crucible.

Using an electric furnace constructed with blocks of lime, the intense heat would render the crucible and its carbon contents into a molten liquid mass. Once the desired temperature had been achieved, the crucible and its contents were rapidly cooled by immersing them into cold water. This abrupt cooling caused the rapid shrinkage of the molten iron crucible, which created enough pressure to crystallize the molten carbon into tiny diamond fragments.