Diamonds created in less than 3 hours – an innovative process

They say that diamonds are a woman's best friend. Aside from that, he seems to be the best creator of this world.

In particular, one researcher has discovered a faster way to make diamonds in a laboratory that has the potential to revolutionize jewelry.

Regular lab-grown diamonds, which have been on the market since the 1980s and have increased in popularity in recent years, take up to 10 weeks to manufacture.

But materials scientist Rodney Ruff and his team of researchers have now been able to create one in three hours.

After Ruff saw reports of carbon forming without a high-pressure environment, he wanted to experiment with the ideal conditions for diamond formation.

“We thought that if we could find the right conditions, it could lead to diamonds,” Ruf, a researcher at the Institute of Basic Sciences in South Korea, told Science magazine. “So we said ‘let’s try’.”

His team found that a very small stone, 100 nanometers in size, the size of a virus, could be produced.

In the study recently published in the journal Nature, scientists created a mixture of liquid gallium, nickel, silicon and iron that was heated to more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and exposed to hydrogen gas and methane, producing carbon gas.

The combination of silicon – a key ingredient in the process – and carbon gas bonded the carbon atoms together and created tiny crystals.

They learned that a diamond can be shaped in 150 minutes or 2.5 hours, a significantly accelerated process compared to the weeks-long process of creating a laboratory diamond suitable for a wedding ring.

Although these diamonds are nanoscale, researchers expect that they will eventually be able to produce larger diamonds, and Roff believes that other scientists will soon create their own.

“A lot of labs around the world will start cooking things,” he said.

Laboratory Grade Diamonds: Are They Worth It?

The trial comes amid a boom in lab-grown diamonds, as many jewelers adapt to include more affordable gemstones in engagement ring settings to meet growing demand.

One bride previously told The Post that she would rather save for a house than get a natural diamond ring.

Meanwhile, jewelers who advocate for more ethical gemstones say there is no good reason to choose natural diamonds, especially since they are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

“I would say that I think it's not too far in the future that lab-grown diamonds will probably outnumber natural diamonds in the engagement market by a factor of three to one,” Lindsay Reinesmith, founder and CEO of Ada Diamonds, told The Post.

Lab-grown diamonds on the market today offer better color and clarity than more expensive natural diamonds, says jewelry designer and founder of Grown Brilliance, Akshay Jhaveri.

“It's definitely better than natural diamonds,” he told The Washington Post.