Hi,
I am curious what others think about the terms “lab created” and “lab grown”. I have heard these terms used interchangeably and as completely different. Thoughts?
Both = Man Made.
1 Like
agree with mhutton, both man made… same goes for synthetic.
all cubic zirconia is man made, as is moissanite… doesn’t exist in nature.
Some synthetics cost more than others…depends on how they are made.
for corundum stones, cheapest and lowest quality is the oldest tecnique, Verneuille process… easily distinquished by curved concentric growth lines, presence of abundant bubble inclusions and glass… flux fusion is more expensive, distinquishable by growth lines and flux inclusions… best quality and most expensive is by hydrothermal…
90% of synthetic diamonds made by vapor deposition… better quality stones made by high pressure, high temperature presses…both can be distinquished from natural by inclusions and growth lines.
Incorrect!
Cubic zirconia was discovered as a natural mineral in 1937. https://www.gia.edu/doc/Cubic-Zirconia.pdf
Moissanite is a naturally occurring mineral named in 1905 after Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan. https://www.mindat.org/min-2743.html
1 Like
Lab grown, lab created, and synthetic all have the same meaning. Additionally, they are not produced in laboratories, they are all manufactured in factories.
1 Like
I stand corrected sir: zirconium oxide is found most commonly in nature as baddeleyte. reaction with silicates in granitics rocks as those rocks form gives rise to zircon which traps uranium, rare earth metals. Yb/Sm versus La/Yb ratios determine one origin of eclogite facies metamorphic rock which partially melts into grantitic rock…natural Cz is indeed rare and is found trapped within baddeleyite and zircon… the metamict appearance indicates they are undergoing dissolution. Zircons are the primary method of dating very ancient rocks, with the Jack Hills zircons, some of which are detrital give dates as early as 4 billion years, using lead 206/204 against lead 207/204… the Hadean crust had already started forming…with the magma ocean solidifying at 4.5 billion years, which is the age of the earth…
Silicon Carbide, aka moissanjte is also extremely rare and is found as inclusions within diamonds and minerals of kimberlitic affinity, formed from magmas with high C02 content… beside the meteorite… also found in high temperature pressure metamorphic rocks rich in carbonaceous material.
For practical purposes, and not for geochemical purposes, all gem material for both Cz and moissanite are synthetic. Also agree that they synthetic diamonds and other synthetics are produced on industrial scale. 90% of synthetic diamonds and for that matter, natural go into making abrasives…Moissanite most commonly produced as carborundum a cheap abrasive… carborundum…the hardness is 9.5, making it second to diamond. Cubic boron nitride has a diamond structure and is almost as hard… the hexagonal form is soft and can be used as a dry lubricant.
agree completely, thank you!
have to add that baddelelyite is incompatible with silica saturation…mostly found in mafic low silica to undersaturated rocks… transformation into zircon involves the addition of silica as silica rich partial melts form at depth…Zr02 does trap trace elements, zircon retains those due to it’s high closure temperature. Natural Cz is Zr02…synthetic uses calcium and yttrium to stablize it’s formation… Natural Cz and zircon have high concentrations of HSFE elements, Y and moderate REE, depleted in heavy REE when in equilbirum with garnet during high grade metamorphism that causes a low degree (5% or less) partial melt which is high silica. Granitic rocks in differentiate from the partial melt.