igs laboratory

Johri Bazar, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Diamond is a solid form of carbon with a diamond cubic crystal structure. At room temperature and pressure it is metastable and graphite is the stable form, but diamond almost never converts to graphite. Diamond is renowned for its superlative physical qualities, most of which originate from the strong covalent bonding between its atoms. In particular, it has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material. Those properties determine the major industrial applications of diamond in cutting and polishing tools and the scientific applications in diamond knives and diamond anvil cells.

Because of its extremely rigid lattice, diamond can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron and nitrogen. Small amounts of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) color diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (lattice defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, orange or red. Diamond also has relatively high optical dispersion (ability to disperse light of different colors).

Most natural diamonds have ages between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years. Most were formed at depths of 150 to 250 kilometers (93 to 155 mi) in the Earth's mantle, although a few have come from as deep as 800 kilometers (500 mi). Under high pressure and temperature, carbon-containing fluids dissolved minerals and replaced them with diamonds. Much more recently (tens to hundreds of million years ago), they were carried to the surface in volcanic eruptions and deposited in igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites.

Diamonds can be produced synthetically in a high pressure, high temperature method (HPHT) which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earth's mantle. An alternative, and completely different growth technique is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Several non-diamond materials, which include cubic zirconia and silicon carbide and are often called diamond simulants, resemble diamond in appearance and many properties. Special gemological techniques have been developed to distinguish natural diamonds, synthetic diamonds, and diamond simulants.s

The jewellery business is experiencing a kind of revolution and the domination of gold jewellery is being challenged by a sharp increase in diamond jewellery. The prices of diamonds have doubled over a year, yet the demand for diamond jewellery has been steadily growing. Diamond merchants are more confident than ever and increasing their operations steadily. The reason is simple. Diamond prices arent as volatile as gold and hence give more stability to the merchants.

Diamond jewellery is also being seen as a break from the regular and traditional gold jewellery. More and more youth are turning towards diamond jewellery for weddings and other special occasions. Diamond rings have especially taken over gold as engagement rings. More and more couples are looking to a diamond ring as their symbol of bonding. Even the smaller towns are getting bolder and we see many big brands entering the smaller towns. While its the designer and branded gold jewellery that sells there more, even diamonds are catching up soon.

Diamonds always had high astrological significance. Our Indian mythology states that diamond is believed to have healing abilities as well. They are so hard that they were used as engraving tools from time immemorial. Diamonds in ancient time were called Vajra, which transliterates to Thunderbolt in Sanskrit.

Diamonds have always been linked to royalty but gained commercial importance in the 19th century when the supply increased. Also with the introduction of technologies like improved cutting and polishing along with innovative and successful advertising campaigns. Today India is home to the worlds largest diamond cutting and polishing center. On a pro rata basis 11 out of every 12 processed diamonds in the jewelry around the world comes from India.

With successful advertising and easy availability, today, diamonds are the most loved and bought gems in the world