The Man Made Diamonds

There is none denying the fact that diamonds are girls’ best friends, yet they have many other options including moissanite, the most prominent. Moissanite has the looks of a diamond but is lab-created to have certain characteristics better than a diamond, of which many disapprove. Nevertheless it is more brilliant than a diamond and finds its own users.

Though at a first glance moissanite may look very much like diamonds, they are different. They aren’t as clear or whitish, but have a shade of green or gray in them, which goes unnoticed unless viewed in natural light. Their refractive index is twice of a diamond, making them more brilliant than diamonds, a characteristic that many don’t appreciate.

Though discovered in 1905, it was patronized as a gemstone almost hundred years later. It’s named after the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Henry Moisson who first came across the mineral in a meteor crater.

Natural moissanite is very rare. Silicon carbide that comprises the gemstone was being produced in labs much before its discovery in natural environment. Eugene Acheson, who named it as carborundum, first produced silicon carbide in 1895.

In labs, wood chips are heat blasted in conjunction with steam for making moissanite. The process yields long fibers, which are pounded with rocks to transform wood fibers to very hard crystals that find many applications, including making of jewelry.

Because of its hardness comparable to diamond, and its shine and brilliance, moissanite is used in making jewelry. It may be used as a single gemstone or included in designs of other adornments.

Some of its characteristics like resistance to stains and wood-like appearance have prompted the use of moissanite as a floor covering, typically in science labs, where such features are desirable.

Moissanite has many properties superior to diamonds. Though it’s as hard as diamond, it is much lighter in weight and much cheaper. Moissanite has more brilliance than a diamond, giving more sparkle and shine.

It ‘s a very hard material that can scratch on any other surface except a diamond, meaning that it remains scratch free unless scratched by a diamond.