How to make an artificial diamond from soda. How to make a diamond yourself and is it possible at home - the best ways

Technicians

Crystals are solids, molecules or atoms that form a crystal lattice. They can be grown with the help of the crystallization process of solutions, vapors or melts, which begins at certain conditions, say, supersaturation of steam, supercooling of liquid.

You will need

– distilled or boiled water;
– chemical glassware for preparing the solution;
– a laboratory filter, one that can be replaced with a blotter or cotton wool;
- a blank sheet of paper.

Instructions

1. To grow a beautiful crystal of the correct shape, you need a clean solution. To prepare it you will need: distilled or boiled water, chemical glassware for preparing the solution, a laboratory filter, one that can be replaced with a blotter or cotton wool, a clean sheet of paper.

2. It takes a lot of time for a crystal to grow huge and beautiful. This is a difficult and long process, one that requires caution and patience. First you need to prepare a small crystal - a seed. As soon as the first crystals appear, you need to choose those that have a particularly true shape or that you like the most.

3. Fill the beaker halfway with warm water and add salt in small portions. Mix the solution after every fraction of the substance. As soon as it stops dissolving, stir thoroughly again. Filter the prepared solution into another glass where the crystal will grow, and cover it with paper. In just a week the crystal will noticeably grow.

4. Care should be taken to ensure that when the solution evaporates, the upper part of the crystal is not exposed to air. It will ruin him. To prevent this from happening, add the solution to the container as needed.

One hundred percent accurate information regarding the authenticity of the stone can be provided to you by an extraordinary expert who knows a lot about his business. But situations still occur when authenticity is in jewelry store you urgently need to determine it yourself. Without the appropriate equipment, it is unlikely that you will be able to cope with this, however, there are some tests that will help you at least identify very obvious fakes. Such tests are based on the fact that real diamonds They can both conduct heat and “destroy” light.

Instructions

1. If you are trying to “test” a stone without a setting, then try placing it lightly on any printed text. If it is a genuine diamond, then you will not see the letters through the stone. Diamond breaks light too powerfully, so it is not suitable as a magnifying glass. But through other, less expensive stones, the symbols will be wonderfully visible.

2. If you illuminate a stone with a light source similar to an LED, then in primitive stones you will see a point of light on the other side of the stone. If it is a genuine diamond, then only a clear halo will be reflected around the rim of the stone.

3. Try breathing on a stone and immediately see if the stone becomes foggy. All stones will become clouded for a moment, but a reliable diamond will invariably remain clear. Please note that the stone, the one called mussanite, also withstands such a test remarkably well, therefore, to eliminate mistakes, it is best to go to an excellent jeweler.

4. You also need to be extremely observant to see the stone. In real diamonds, small particles of other minerals may be visible that were pressed into the stone during its formation. However, there cannot be any bubbles in a real stone.

5. Look at the edges of the stone - if they are rounded or worn, then it is glass. If the stone is very clean, without inclusions, then it is also not a diamond, but rather light quartz.

6. It is also important to understand the fact that a reliable diamond cannot be cheap and in no case give in to the temptation to buy a “genuine” diamond for ridiculous money. As usual, a diamond in a piece of jewelry is inserted so that its back is open and accessible for inspection.

7. Do not test the diamond by scratching the glass: yes, this stone is strong, but it is absolutely permissible to damage it using this method. But unnatural stones, which are now absolutely safely “grown” in production, will be difficult to distinguish even for an expert.

Video on the topic

Probably, the physics and chemistry lessons at school were especially exciting, in which various skills were demonstrated. This instruction will not only allow you to refresh your basic skills in these subjects, but also to grow beautiful crystals. They make good souvenirs.

You will need

- salt,
– water,
- cup,
– thread,
- paper.

Instructions

1. Remember that growing crystals is a long process. Be patient and decide by what date you would like to receive the crystal. On average it will take you two to three weeks.

2. Decide what substance you will grow your crystal from. Various salts (including bath salts) and even sugar will do. Salt crystals They grow better, are stronger and have different colors, which is why we will talk about them further. So, from traditional table salt you will get white, transparent crystals, from copper sulfate - blue-blue, from copper - red. Do not use various unnatural dyes - they will slow down the reaction and change the color of the solution, but not the crystal itself.

3. In the first stage of your experiment, you are required to obtain an intensive solution of table salt (NaCl). To do this, pour salt into fairly warm water (approx. 60°C) and stir thoroughly. It is advisable to use distilled water (if you are growing copper sulfate, by all means). When the salt stops dissolving and begins to precipitate, it means the desired saturation has been achieved. On average, 35-40 g of salt are consumed per 100 g of water. Strain the solution to get rid of debris and excess salt.

4. Take an embryo (seed), i.e. a large crystal of the salt you are using. Place it at the bottom of a glass with an intensive solution or fasten it to a thread and lower it into the solution. It is allowed to take several embryos.

5. Wrap your container in something warm so that the solution cools slowly, and cover it with a sheet of paper to prevent dust from getting into the water. After which the 2nd, longest stage in growing crystals begins - waiting.

6. If you did everything correctly, then after 3-4 days the embryo will not dissolve, but will begin to grow slowly. As the water evaporates, the crystal will increase in size. Control the fluid level. If necessary, add a new solution once every week or two. The growing embryo is better not to be taken out of the solution when it is not needed. If you follow all these rules, after some time you will receive a beautiful crystal, one that will become a strange decoration for your home or a beautiful gift for your friends.

Video on the topic

Since those ancient times, when society first learned about the existence of a transparent, colorless stone, not inferior in its hardness only to hardened steel, a lot of water has already flowed under the bridge. But despite this diamond has not lost its original value; on the contrary, today virtually everyone knows about the existence of this precious stone and its remarkable beauty. And it's true diamond has a lot of facets, it is not difficult to draw this fascinating stone.

You will need

- Personal Computer;
– Photoshop program.

Instructions

1. Launch Photoshop on your computer and open a new document with the following settings: resolution 350 x 350 pixels and white background. Now use the key combination “Shift+Ctrl+N” to create a new layer and set the foreground color on it (gentle blue).

2. Draw a rectangular shape (for this you will need the Pen Tool). By appearance this figure should resemble the silhouettes of the future diamond a: an acute angle at the bottom, two obtuse angles on the left and another acute angle opposite them. Right-click on the resulting figure with the right mouse button. After that, select the “form selected area” option and set the feathering parameters to 0 pxl, confirming that your actions are correct by clicking “OK”.

3. Using the Paint Bucket tool, fill the shape with the color that was set for the foreground.

4. Select a rectangular area: one side of the rectangle should be a bisector coming from the bottom corner, and the second, running parallel to it, should be slightly to the right of the right corner of the figure. Trim the outlined part: press DELETE or fill this area with white.

5. Using the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+J”, duplicate the layer, and then rotate it horizontally using the following sequence of actions: Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontally.

6. Merge the two layers by pressing "Ctrl+E". Begins to emerge diamond .

7. To create a new layer, press the following key combination: Shift+Ctrl+N. In its parameters, set black as the foreground color. After that, select the drawn diamond, then go to the “Editing” – “Stroke” section and click “OK”.

8. Make a new layer and, using the Pen tool, draw a horizontal line with two lines, and later fill this area with black.

9. Make a new layer and, using the Pen Tool, draw the first vertical line with two lines. After that, choosing “Make Selection”, fill the vertical line with black. Similarly, draw a second vertical line and highlight it with black.

10. Open a new layer. Edit the parameters there by setting white color foreground. After that, take a brush (parameters 200 px) and give diamond y radiance.

11. Delete the white layer and merge all layers by pressing the key combination “Ctrl + Shift + E”. Our diamond ready!

Video on the topic

Note!
Continuously preserve the metamorphoses made!

Helpful advice
Copy the drawn diamond several times, continuously opening the newest layer, and change the dimensions of the diamond. Place these stones in different places and at different angles. Filling out the document little by little, you can draw a diamond wallpaper.

Diamond- This is an expensive stone, the most precious of all existing ones. In nature, it is found as a mineral, the distinctive property of which is its exceptional hardness. Jewelry with a diamond were and remain the most desirable. Only a gemologist or specialist in the field can verify the authenticity of this stone. jewelry art. However, if you need to buy a diamond without involving experts, use several tests to verify its authenticity.

Instructions

1. Place the stone in clean water. With the help of this test, you can determine the integrity of a diamond. If the upper part of the stone is authentic, and the lower part is a fake, then the junction of these parts will be visible in the water.

2. Watch the sparkle of the diamond. It should shimmer with shades gray. If it sparkles with all the colors of the rainbow, then it is a low quality stone or a fake.

3. Breathe on the stone. A genuine diamond will not become cloudy, but a fake diamond will become cloudy for a few seconds.

4. Rub the diamond carefully with sandpaper. If scratches occur during this process, then it is a fake. However, such paper should not contain diamond chips; on the contrary, it is possible to spoil the stone.

5. Weigh the stone. Zirconium, which is often passed off as a diamond, is much heavier than a gemstone. You can use this verification method if you have a table that indicates the correspondence between size and weight in grams or carats.

6. If an expensive stone is in a frame, check whether it matches the rank of the stone. A reliable diamond is not set in an inexpensive setting. It should have a mark indicating the quality of the metal.

7. You can also test the authenticity of the stone in a laboratory. Put the diamond under ultraviolet light. A bright blue glow indicates its quality. Real diamonds are not visible in X-rays. The materials from which counterfeits are made have a certain degree of impermeability to such radiation.

8. If you are not sure that even with the help of a testing system you can distinguish a genuine diamond from an unnatural one, contact a qualified expert. Exist different ways identification of natural and unnatural stones that are close in chemical composition to natural ones.

Note!
During the growth of the main crystal, other crystals may appear and grow in the solution, which must be removed at least once every two weeks.

Helpful advice
It is best to filter the solution through a laboratory filter, but if there is none, then you can use a blotter or cotton wool. The denser it is, the purer the liquid will be.

In this article:

At all times, people have greatly valued jewelry with diamonds. How can one not admire a stone that plays with tints, glitters, has magical properties, beauty and strength? A diamond is considered a symbol of power, luxury, charm, and success. How are diamonds made?

How to make a diamond?

A diamond is a processed diamond. Diamonds are mined in Africa, Canada, Russia, Australia, India, and Brazil. This is carbon with impurities, which has a high degree of hardness and thermal conductivity.

Diamond Processing Equipment

In order to give a diamond its shape, it is processed, after which it is called a diamond. Rough diamond can be used in medicine, industry; after processing - in jewelry. After processing, a diamond begins to shimmer, shine, it acquires an aesthetic appearance, its value increases significantly, while it does not lose its properties and characteristics.

They first learned to process diamonds several thousand years ago; over the years, craftsmen have developed new processing methods, and today they make real masterpieces.

The processing process is labor-intensive and complex, it goes through several stages:

At the first stage, the stone is sawed into two parts, one of which is larger. This is done using a special machine. If you use bronze discs, it takes several days to cut the diamond. A laser beam does this in two hours, but the cost of such an installation is very high.
In the second stage, the stone is shaped. To do this, rub stone against stone. To create a square or oval shape, an emerald cut is used, which eliminates the need to throw away most of the stone. However, this cut conveys less of the brightness, iridescence and radiance of the stone. An “excellent” cut directs the facets at one angle, resulting in an interesting visual effect. The diamond is mainly round in shape, and other shapes are called differently: “pear”, “oval”, “princess”, “heart”.
In the third stage, diamonds are given shine. To do this, apply edges using a cast iron washer and polish it. To begin with, nine faces are made, gradually increasing the number to seventeen. The finished diamond has 57 facets. There is a diamond that has 121 or 240 facets. More complex techniques can be used to give a diamond an interesting shape. In order to make facets for one diamond, a master will need about four hours of work.

When processed, a diamond loses much of its weight, but the results are worth it.

The color of a diamond is assessed strictly - this is an important criterion in the characteristics of a stone. There are white, gray, transparent diamonds, the rarest are red or fancy. In addition, there are other shades of stone. Prices for colored diamonds are more expensive, since the stones require additional coloring technology. The coating is applied using irradiation with neurons or electrons, and also changes color using pressure and high temperatures. The color of diamonds also depends on what impurities were in the diamond.

Crystals for lasers for diamond processing

Artificial diamonds

An excellent replacement for expensive diamonds are artificial stones.

They can be of two types:

diamond substitutes;
synthetic stones.

Synthetic diamonds are produced by applying pressure to the stone while heating it to high temperatures and using the gas phase.

The first method improves the characteristics of the stone, almost bringing them to natural look. If you make artificial diamonds in a laboratory using the gas phase deposition method, the stones you get are similar to natural ones: they have hardness, refractive index, weight, shine, and may have inclusions that are invisible.

Artificial diamonds have yellow tint, since they contain nitrogen, which absorbs the blue light spectrum.

Diamond from scratch - with peanut butter

Understanding how diamonds form deep within the Earth could explain how life evolved on our planet. So a team from Germany tried to fake precious stones. Laboratory production of diamonds from carbon dioxide and peanut butter.

Dan Frost hears a thump and his office floor vibrates. This only means one thing: one of his experiments has exploded again. As he makes his way down to the lab, he finds shock on the faces of his lab colleagues. From where they were working, he felt like a small bomb had exploded. Their students' eyes are still wide with fear. “That sounds terrible,” he says apologetically. “But it’s not dangerous - everything is protected.”

Explosion is part of their job. A scientist at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany is trying to simulate conditions in the Earth's lower mantle, thousands of kilometers below our feet. This involves crushing rocks at the highest pressures known to man.

Unsurprisingly, failures happen. As part of this work, Frost found amazing ways to make diamonds - from carbon dioxide, for example. And peanut butter. Yes, peanut butter.

Compared to our enormous achievements in space exploration, we still know very little about the world beneath our feet. Basic geology tells us that the Earth's interior can be divided into rough layers: the core, the lower and upper mantle, and the crust. But their exact composition is still a mystery—and a major gap in our knowledge.

“If we want to understand how the Earth formed, then one of the things you need to know is what the planet is made of.”

Many geologists suggest that the Earth is made of the same material as meteorites from the asteroid belt. The problem is that most meteorites that fall to earth have a higher proportion of silicon than we find in the earth's crust. So where did he go? One possibility is that it is stuck in the lower mantle.

Frost uses a powerful piston to squeeze out small crystal samples at speeds of up to 280,000 times at atmospheric pressure, while ovens are prepared for them at the same time. This recreates conditions found in the upper layers of the lower mantle about 800 or 900 km below the Earth's surface, causing the crystal's atoms to rearrange themselves into denser structures.
The second anvil crushes the newly formed minerals - imitating the conditions that lie in the deeper layers of the Earth. While the sample is still in the device, it measures which sound waves are passing through the resulting crystal. By comparing these readings of seismic waves passing through the Earth's interior, he can find out whether his sample is similar in composition to the mantle.

Carbon Absorption and Surface Interactions

The mantle, it turns out, does not contain a high proportion of silicon corresponding to the composition of meteorites. The earth originally had a much larger crust, full of silicon. The raw materials from which the Earth is made in the first place may need to be reconsidered.

The intense pressure process also created the mineral ringwoodite, a dark blue magnesium iron silicate that . The results indicate that Earth's "oceans" may be hidden deep in the mantle.

Counter-intuitively, I’ll tell you about the air we breathe. Frost suspects that a number of geological processes may pull CO2 from the ocean down into the mantle, where it is converted into diamonds. These gemstones are less volatile than other forms of carbon. This means there is little chance that they will be released back into the atmosphere.

Diamonds in the mantle slowed Earth's warming, potentially aiding the evolution of life.

The key ingredient for this to happen, he believes, is iron. It is precisely because Dan Frost has recreated the process of forging a diamond out of thin air that he dares to claim this.

growth did not grow rich from its harvest; Diamonds take a painfully long time to grow. "If we wanted to make a two or three millimeter diamond, we would have to leave it in the reactor for several weeks," he says.

This did not stop him from experimenting with other sources for diamond production, however; On orders from a German TV channel, he created some diamonds from carbon-rich peanut butter. "A lot of hydrogen was released, ruining the experiment," he says.

Will his institute be able to make artificial diamonds with different properties? Boron-doped diamonds are becoming the best semiconductors for electronics.

Using other carbon structures as raw materials - in the form of tiny "nano tubes", for example - could make a new type of super-strong diamond, more complex than any other known material.

For the most part, however, Frost is interested in furthering the mysteries of Earth's history. “I'm interested in how the Earth's interior interacts with the surface; what is the age of the earth. And if we are looking for other habitable planets, we must consider many secret processes." Vital work certainly requires sacrifice - a little peanut butter and weird

Growing artificial stones is a task that teams of scientists have been struggling with for many years. “Craftsmen” have also long been wondering how to grow a diamond at home. Some have even found ways to obtain it.

Creation of artificial diamonds

In nature, diamond is formed under the influence of high temperatures (more than 1600 °C) and high pressure(60-100 thousand atmospheres). Under natural conditions, the formation of diamonds takes hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. Artificial diamonds, whose physical characteristics completely correspond to natural ones, can be grown in a few months. To do this you need to recreate natural conditions their education.

Create a device at home that supports so much high temperature and the required pressure, no one has yet succeeded. But some “masters” share tips on how this can still be done. For example, it is advised to take a thick-walled pipe, graphite and TNT. Then put TNT and graphite into a pipe and weld it. It is claimed that if you blow up TNT and then manage to find the remains of the pipe, you will find tiny diamonds in them. In practice, the chance of getting hurt is hundreds of times greater than the chance of getting a diamond this way.

Other “craftsmen” offer a safer method of creating diamonds. All you need is a pencil, wire, water (preferably liquid nitrogen) and a high voltage source (for example, a welding machine). Take the lead out of the pencil and tie a wire to both ends. Place the lead with the wire in a container of water and freeze (or use liquid nitrogen for this purpose). Remove the lead from the freezer and connect the wires to the welding machine. It is believed that as soon as you pass a strong current through your design, the lead will almost instantly turn into a diamond. Of course, this method can be tested for experimental purposes, but you should not seriously count on obtaining an artificial diamond.

Creation of artificial gemstones

Unlike diamonds, many other gemstones can be grown at home. To do this, you need to make or buy a Verneuil apparatus and stock up on reagents. For creating artificial ruby For example, a salt of aluminum dioxide containing a slight admixture of chromium oxide is useful. Place it in the burner reservoir and melt it, watching as a “ruby” grows right before your eyes in a few hours. Using different salts as reagents, you can get other types precious stones.

Growing Crystals

If you consider the possibility of growing stones as an interesting experience, and not as a way to get rich, then you can go the other way and grow not stones, but multi-colored crystals from salt, sugar or copper sulfate.

To grow salt crystals, make a saturated solution by adding salt to a glass of warm distilled water until it stops dissolving. To obtain multi-colored crystals, water can be tinted with food coloring. After this, hang a small salt crystal over the glass on a string so that it is completely immersed in the solution. Within a few days the crystal will grow. Copper sulfate crystals are grown in the same way.

You will need

- distilled or boiled water;
- chemical utensils for preparing the solution;
- a laboratory filter, one that can be replaced with a blotter or cotton wool;
- a blank sheet of paper.

Instructions

One hundred percent accurate information regarding the authenticity of the stone can be provided to you by an extraordinary expert who knows a lot about his business. But there are still situations when you urgently need to determine the authenticity of a jewelry store yourself. Without the appropriate equipment, it is unlikely that you will be able to cope with this, however, there are some tests that will help you at least identify very obvious fakes. Such tests are based on the fact that real diamonds They can both conduct heat and “destroy” light.

Instructions

5. Look at the edges of the stone - if they are rounded or worn, then it is glass. If the stone is very clean, without inclusions, then it is also not a diamond, but rather light quartz.

Video on the topic

You will need

- salt,
- water,
- cup,
- thread,
- paper.

Instructions

1. Remember that growing crystals is a long process. Be patient and decide by what date you would like to receive the crystal. On average it will take you two to three weeks.

Video on the topic

You will need

- Personal Computer;
- Photoshop program.

Instructions

2. Draw a rectangular shape (for this you will need the Pen Tool). In appearance, this figure should resemble the silhouettes of the future diamond a: an acute angle at the bottom, two obtuse angles on the left and another acute angle opposite them. Right-click on the resulting figure with the right mouse button. After that, select the “form selected area” option and set the feathering parameters to 0 pxl, confirming that your actions are correct by clicking “OK”.

Precious stones are used for more than just jewelry. Their purchase is a popular way to invest earned money. The price of diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies remains consistently high, and the stones themselves can be stored for many years and passed on by inheritance. To make jewelry more accessible, scientists are developing and improving technologies for producing synthetic jewelry stones. Some jewelry lovers are also looking for ways to grow diamond and other crystals at home.

The first attempts to make artificial gems date back to 4000 BC. e. These were beads covered with blue enamel, imitating lapis lazuli. Later, analogues of precious stones were made from colored glass, then from plastic. The first experiment, as a result of which scientists managed to grow a mineral, refers to 19th century. In his laboratory, the Frenchman Marc Gaudin obtained small ruby crystals in an attempt to reproduce natural processes crystallization.

Modern scientists have access to all the knowledge of their predecessors, precision instruments and installations capable of creating very high temperatures and pressures. Chemists and physicists practice many methods to produce synthesized stones, including diamonds. The basis for obtaining them can be:

melts;
solutions;
gaseous media.

Accordingly, a crystal can be grown either by transforming the original solid or by creating a sample from the liquid or gaseous phase.

One of the most complex technologies is obtaining diamonds. The development of methods for its synthesis was based on the fact that diamond has the same composition as graphite. But getting one substance to transform into another is not easy. To make a diamond, a temperature of 1600 ℃ or higher and a pressure of about 110,000 atmospheres will be required. There are unverified traditional methods obtaining diamond from graphite at home using electricity or explosives, but the likelihood of their successful use tends to zero.

To achieve jewelry quality from the resulting diamond, an even more complex industrial technique will be required, the specifics of which manufacturers do not disclose.

For the first time, gem-quality stones were produced in 1970 in America by the General Electric company.

The safest method that can be tried to grow a diamond outside the laboratory requires the use of the following components and equipment:

pencil lead;
the wire;
liquid nitrogen or water;
voltage source.

Each end of a piece of graphite must be wrapped with wire and the lead must be frozen in liquid nitrogen. If liquid nitrogen is not available, you can place the workpiece in a container of water and freeze it. The next step is to connect the ends of the wire to a voltage source and conduct current through the lead. As a result, graphite should turn into diamond, that is, acquire its hardness.

Organic salts

To synthesize crystals from solutions, organic salts are used as a base. From these substances, called alum, Marc Gaudin obtained ruby crystals. To do this, he fused potassium and aluminum sulfate with potassium chromate.

Using some of the substances, chemistry enthusiasts grow crystals on their own. For example, at home, beautiful bright blue crystalline formations are obtained from copper sulfate. In addition, for self-cultivation of minerals various colors can be used:

potassium chloride;
inkstone;
nickel sulfate;
potassium alum;
Mohr's salt;
potassium nitrate and some others.

When choosing a suitable reagent, take into account that it must meet the following requirements:

dissolve in water or other solvent;
be stable to temperature increases;
does not pose a health hazard when used correctly.

The technique for growing crystals from organic salts is based on the preparation of supersaturated solutions followed by crystallization in an open container. The process of obtaining a beautiful “stone” takes more than one month and consists of several key steps.

Preparation of mother liquor

This stage includes a number of actions:

Pour 700–800 ml of sufficiently hot water, the temperature of which is 50 ℃, into a 1 liter heat-resistant glass.
Gradually - 1 tablespoon at a time - add the selected substance and mix the composition until the powder is completely dissolved.
When the solution becomes saturated, that is, the substance stops dissolving, add another 2 tablespoons and leave for 24 hours.
To prevent foreign particles of dust from getting into the liquid, the container can be covered with a sheet of filter paper.

Obtaining the seed

Includes several steps:

First, you will need to pour the resulting liquid into a heat-resistant flask, passing it through a filter, and add 1 teaspoon of a substance, which can be the crystals that precipitated in the initial solution.
In order for the substance to dissolve, it is recommended to heat the container in a water bath at a temperature no higher than 60–70 ℃.
Rinse a clean container with boiling water so that it heats up to the same temperature as the solution, and pour the liquid into the container.
Wrap the container in a cloth, such as a towel, cover with filter paper and let cool.
When the composition becomes cool, small crystals form on the bottom and walls of the glass, from which you need to choose one, which will become the basis of the future “jewel”.

Getting the stone

The single crystal will be grown from the obtained seed:

The sample you like should be tightly wrapped with thread or fishing line.
The other end of the thread can be wound around a stick or pencil, which will serve as a support.
Place the seed in a glass with a solution at room temperature.
The crystal grows gradually; during this period it cannot be pulled out or turned. If the liquid evaporates, exposing the “stone,” you will need to add more solution.
After the crystal reaches the desired size, it should be carefully removed and placed on a napkin.

Sometimes grown samples are subject to weathering, that is, they are destroyed by evaporation of the crystallization liquid and turn into powder. They can be preserved in paraffin or under a layer of vegetable oil.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, a scientist from France, Auguste Verneuil, developed a new method for producing artificial rubies, also called “melting in a flame.” This method marked the beginning of the stage of industrial synthesis of precious stones. They began to be used not only in jewelry, but also in the production of watches, measuring instruments and for other technical purposes.

Verneuil designed and tested a structure consisting of an oxygen-hydrogen torch, a powder dispenser from which the gem would be synthesized, and a ceramic base. In such an oven, a crystal 40–50 mm long can be grown in 3–4 hours. Depending on the chemical composition powder is obtained from stones of various colors, as well as their star-shaped varieties.

However, it is not possible to grow a diamond at home using this technique - this is how, as a rule, corundums (rubies and sapphires) and spinel are synthesized. The Verneuil device produces synthetic titanite strontium and rutile, which can compete with diamonds in brilliance, but are less hard. High-quality imitation diamonds are also garnetites, lithium niobate and cubic zirconia.

Device for working at home

To master the cultivation of precious stones at home, you will need to assemble a device using a Verneuil sample, or purchase a ready-made one. The device must include:

a mechanism that ensures the gradual flow of substance into the hopper and then into the burner;
muffle;
cathetometer;
2 separate oxygen and hydrogen supply systems;
crystal holder and its lowering mechanism.

Depending on the chosen substance, you can grow stones of different colors:

cobalt oxide - blue and green;
iron oxide - pink;
vanadium oxide - green and gray.

The power consumption of the device is about 3 kW. To produce a synthetic ruby weighing 5–6 g, it will take approximately 3 hours, 0.2 g of chromium oxide and 6 g of aluminum oxide powder.

How to grow diamonds at home

The cultivation of “analogs” of diamonds can be organized using sugar or salt available in any kitchen. To start the experiment you will need:

distilled or boiled pure water;
salt;
thread or fishing line;
pencil.

The process consists of the following steps:

To create a supersaturated solution: gradually add salt to water at room temperature and stir until the grains stop dissolving.
Wind the thread around the pencil so that its end does not reach the bottom of the container. Dip the thread into the liquid.
After a few days, the thread will be covered with crystals. You need to select the largest sample, attach it to a new thread and lower it into a filtered solution.
Gradually the “diamond” will increase. If water stops covering the diamond, you need to make a supersaturated solution and add it to the container with the sample.

If added to the solution food colorings, it will be possible to grow multi-colored crystals. Since all the substances used in the experiment do not pose a threat to health, you can grow a diamond from a salt or sugar solution together with your children.

To increase the likelihood of successfully creating a diamond with your own hands, you will need to follow some recommendations:

take distilled water - there should be no impurities in the liquid;
When working with chemicals, you must use gloves and special utensils;
the laboratory filter can be replaced with gauze, cotton wool or paper;
the water for the solution should be warm, but not very hot;
in the room where the container will be placed, a constant temperature must be maintained, without sudden changes, otherwise the crystal will grow quickly, but will be fragile;
when adding a new solution, its temperature and the temperature of the main one must be the same;
When growing transparent crystals, you should not rush - with accelerated growth they become cloudy.

Synthetic jewelry stones have all the advantages of natural analogues. Moreover, laboratory-produced diamonds have even greater hardness and purity. Scientists have not yet come up with inexpensive and accessible ways for everyone to obtain gems at home, so jewelry lovers can grow beautiful multi-colored crystals from salt or sugar solutions and create their own collection from them.