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Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

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Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#311
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diamond eyeglasses? The lenses would still be cheaper than the Luxottica frames.

I am pretty sure, diamonds would make awful eyeglasses. While their index of refraction is high, which makes glasses thin, their chromatic dispersion is high. That is the very thing which makes their glitter so colorful. For good optical systems you want to try to reduce the dispersion, to 0, if possible. Another story is the scratch-resistance. For that it would be sufficient to coat the surface of the lens with a t…

So… great for certain colorblind individuals?

Edit: Achromotopsia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achromatopsia

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#312

That's a good article. The whole history is there. The commercial side has made huge progress, too. Look up "diamond making machine" on Alibaba. You can buy a high-pressure, high temperature six sided press for about US$200,000. A chemical vapor deposition machine is about the same price. De Beers, the diamond cartel, has an R&D operation, Element Six. They sell synthetic diamonds for lasers and other exotic applicat…

I just want solid diamond cookware. Wouldn’t a diamond skillet be incredibly non-stick, easy to clean, and totally non toxic?

I am actually.surprised you arent getting any responses

With the current focus on PFOS and just amount of garbage materiel used to prepare our foods, I think some innovation is just around the corner.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#313

Over the past 10 years, there has been an explosion in cheap lab diamond and moissanite producers in China and India. 10 years ago, it was hard to find quality lab diamonds at a reasonable price, and moissanite was still reasonably expensive at $400-600/ct. Today, given cutthroat competition and "race to the bottom" pricing strategies, lab diamonds are ubiquitous, extremely high quality, and cheap. Less than $200/ct…

For those that bought into natural stuff at exhorbitant prices, what would you suggest the appropriate move is?

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is certainly good news for lasers. Many people don't realize how good diamonds are for this. Transparent with a 65% higher refractive index than glass, and 8x the thermal conductivity of copper. And completely scratch-proof!

I just want a diamond heat sink. And a diamond kitchen knife.

Diamond heat spreaders for ICs are available.[1] There are problems with coupling the heat to the diamond, and with the various materials having different rates of expansion. It hasn't really caught on.

Diamond layers within ICs to help get the heat out are being considered for future GPUs.[2] Again, it's not a magic bullet.

[1] https://www.diamond-materials.com/en/products/thermal-manage...

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266638642...

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#315

I'm planning on buying an engagement ring very soon and my own plan (as someone who has never done this before!) is to get a good lab grown diamond but spend more money on the metal in the ring. You can make a gem stone in a lab but until we become a Kardashev II civilization we won't be making any sufficient quantity of gold in a lab. If I buy a good loose lab grown diamond will I be able to find someone who will fi…

> If I buy a good loose lab grown diamond will I be able to find someone who will fit it into a high quality gold ring? Yes, and even better, don't design the ring by yourself. Get a nice jewelry box for the diamond, use it for the proposal, and when you open the box, say: "Our relationship is something we're going to build together. I want your opinion on everything for the rest of my life, because you're going to b…

Do not do this unless you are extremely confident it will go over well.

Usually people want to be able to put the ring on their finger (for pictures and engagement announcements) as soon as the question is popped.

Also, the "I need your help" line falls a bit flat to me. Reads like the proposer isn't capable of completing a very important task without some handholding from the "proposee".

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even today, Tiffany will want to charge you $142,000 for a 2ct IF (internally flawless) colorless (D) diamond. Not quite $200K but nonetheless.

This is like arguing about somebody saying a car costs $25,000 when you’re talking about a Bentley. It’s expensive because it’s a Bentley not because it’s a car.

I take your point but theres a still a huge gap to make up for.

I went deep on this topic a couple of years before OP' 2012 date. An IF 2ct would not have exceeded ~80k usd. Not from Tiffany but from a national US shop. And the retailer shouldnt have mattered anyway.

80 is orders of magnitude lower than 250k.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I expect diamonds to lose almost all of their value. Artificial diamonds, you mean. The natural ones will keep their price, just as "hand-crafted" goods did (and, I suspect, as "human-produced" content in the future will); it's a matter of status and signalling that you can afford to buy an inferior, more expensive product.

Given the moral conditions around natural diamonds it is artificial diamonds that should command a premium.

Seems like it would have the opposite effect from what you want

You want people to prefer artificial diamonds because they're cheaper, so it becomes less financially viable to sell natural diamonds, so the people involved in that immoral stuff you're mentioning go out of business

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like arguing about somebody saying a car costs $25,000 when you’re talking about a Bentley. It’s expensive because it’s a Bentley not because it’s a car.

I take your point but theres a still a huge gap to make up for. I went deep on this topic a couple of years before OP' 2012 date. An IF 2ct would not have exceeded ~80k usd. Not from Tiffany but from a national US shop. And the retailer shouldnt have mattered anyway. 80 is orders of magnitude lower than 250k.

> 80 is orders of magnitude lower than 250k.

Well 80k is one order of magnitude smaller than 250k.

Remind me again, how many orders of magnitude difference are there between say a Bentley Continental ($242k) and a Tesla Model S ($76k)?

Luxury products cost a lot.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Natural diamonds are the inferior product in every way.

I never bought a diamond in my life and have zero intention of doing so, but I can see how to some people there would be the appeal of knowing that a diamond came from some rock where it had stayed untouched for millions of years vs. an artificial one made in some China lab last month.

Grab a shovel and dig down in your garden deep enough and you'll get hundreds of old rocks for free

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is certainly good news for lasers. Many people don't realize how good diamonds are for this. Transparent with a 65% higher refractive index than glass, and 8x the thermal conductivity of copper. And completely scratch-proof!

Diamond eyeglasses? The lenses would still be cheaper than the Luxottica frames.

Luxottica is top tier.
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