Diamonds are amazing gemstones formed of billions of carbon atoms. Their beauty, strength, and natural patterns have inspired legends across cultures for decades.
Today, a diamond can be treated to affect its clarity. One of the most common treatments involves laser drilling to burn dark inclusions and vent fractures. The resulting diamond has less flaws and is often considered more valuable.
Symbolism
Throughout history diamonds have been revered for their beauty, strength and mystical properties. They are believed to promote a sense of inner peace, enhance physical wellbeing and inspire creativity and clarity of mind. Diamonds are also a symbol of eternal love, making them the perfect choice for engagement rings and eternity necklaces.
Before the Rebellion, the Diamonds controlled everything about their Gem race and were expected to act in a certain way that showed their superiority and power. They were even given responsibilities to oversee specific aspects of Gemkind like Yellow and Blue who were responsible for the identity of the Gem race, White who was in charge of their spacefaring efforts, and Pink who was in charge of colonizing worlds. Each Diamond had a particular colony they were in charge of and all Gems produced by that colony were under their control.
As shown in Steven Universe: Your Mother and Mine, when the Diamonds took over the Moon Base they scoured the galaxy for planets to colonize as well as their other planetary systems. They were looking for any kind of planets that would allow them to mass-produce their race and expand their empire. The planets colonized ranged from proper planets to small moons, asteroid-sized bodies and even a whole star system.
Although both graphite and diamond are made of carbon, their formation process and crystal structures differ. This is what makes them different minerals and why their properties differ as well. Graphite is soft and can be written on, while diamond is hard and unyielding. This is why it’s not possible to create a synthetic diamond, but it is easy to make a synthetic graphite.
Origins
As one of the world’s most coveted gemstones, diamonds are often used in jewelry making and fashion, but their versatility goes far beyond that. Their durability, thermal conductivity, and optical properties make them incredibly useful in a range of industries.
Most diamonds were formed one to three billion years ago deep below the Earth’s surface under extreme heat and pressure. They are one of Nature’s most amazing gifts – like snowflakes, no two diamonds are alike.
Because of their sturdiness, diamonds serve as natural time capsules that preserve traces of the environment in which they formed. These traces, in turn, help scientists understand more about the process of formation. For example, the way a diamond forms can help distinguish it from graphite (which also contains carbon atoms but has a different crystal structure) and buckminsterfullerene (discrete soccer-ball-shaped molecules with carbon 60 atoms).
However, diamonds have also been linked to bloodshed in Africa. The proceeds from the sale of unethically sourced rough-cut diamonds have been used to purchase weapons that fuel conflict and war, giving rise to the term ‘blood diamonds’. Thankfully, stricter regulations have been put in place to ensure that rough diamonds are not sourced from countries of conflict.
Characteristics
When it comes to choosing a diamond, shoppers usually consider the 4 Cs: cut describes a stone’s symmetry and in theory how much it sparkles; clarity measures its purity; carat weighs its size; and color determines its hue. But these are only the first level of consideration. Beyond these are many more intriguing and important properties of the gem that deserve your attention as a buyer.
In the chemical sense, diamond is one of three allotropes of carbon, which also include graphite (a discrete soccer-ball-shaped molecule of carbon atoms), and buckminsterfullerene (a crystalline structure of carbon 60 atoms). The remarkable properties of each stem from their unique cubic crystal lattice structures. Diamond is the hardest substance on earth and has excellent thermal conductivity, high chemical resistance, and exceptional optical transmissivity.
Historically, the most popular method of color enhancement for diamond was to inject the crystal with nitrogen vacancies through ion implantation. The resulting color centers (NV0, NV-, SiV, and H3) are spectrally distinct from the other atomic vibrations in a diamond and can be manipulated to create different colors.
Other types of color enhancement involve laser drilling to inscribe a diamond’s girdle with a serial number, message, or other symbol. This process can be done without compromising the durability of the diamond or changing its appearance over time, and it is an acceptable practice that should be disclosed by jewelers.
Treatments
Diamond’s extraordinary hardness, conductivity and optical transparency make it a key material in many applications. Much of the work currently taking place at Element Six’s new Global Innovation Centre (GIC), which opened two years ago, is focused on extending these properties to new, high-tech uses. These range from engineered components for lasers and fusion reactors, to thermal management materials and structures for semiconductor lithography.
Moreover, the GIC’s research is also exploring diamond’s potential role in quantum technologies, a long-held dream that may soon be realised. This includes using the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy colour centres in a diamond to detect magnetic fields and radiation, at the molecular level. It is the only material we know of that can do this, and it could lead to new medical diagnostics and treatments at a cellular level.
Today, there are a number of different treatments that can give a diamond a more fancy color or clarity. One common process is laser drilling, in which a laser is used to bore small tunnels into a diamond to burn dark, undesirable inclusions from the stone. These tunnels are then bleached, and the resulting diamond is lighter in tone. Laser treatment is readily detected under magnification and should be disclosed to consumers, but unlike acid etching it does not change the stone’s durability over time.
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Recycled Diamonds
As the millennial consumer gains more influence on purchase decisions, brands must be mindful about how they source their diamonds. One solution that is gaining popularity is recycled diamonds. Recycled diamonds are antique, pre-owned, estate or family heirloom stones that have been repurposed and recut into new jewelry. Recycled diamonds are a great alternative to newly mined diamonds as they require no new mining and do not add to the world’s supply of natural diamonds.
Recycled diamonds are often found in pawn shops or estate sales, but they can also be purchased from large wholesalers and dealers that purchase them at auctions. Once the diamonds are removed from their settings they can be cleaned, recut and re-fashioned into sparkling new pieces of jewelry. Because the diamonds are already in a finished form, they can be sold at a premium to consumers who are seeking a more sustainable option than a newly mined diamond.
While the debate between earth-mined diamonds and lab grown diamonds continues to evolve, millennial consumers are increasingly interested in purchasing recycled diamonds for their sparkle. These consumers are largely motivated by sustainability and socially conscious ideals, as well as a desire for high-quality jewelry that looks beautiful.
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