The Lab Gem Supplier

Since the ability to create look alike gems in the laboratory, all that glitters in the jewelry case is not diamonds. It’s usually cubic zirconia, the popular manmade diamond and crystal gem look alike that can be created so flawlessly that your eye can’t distinguish it from Mother Nature’s handiwork. But even cubic zirconia has its imposters.

Because of the name similarity, laymen sometimes confuse cubic zirconia with the naturally occurring mineral zircon. Although these crystals may both exhibit a diamond’s clear sparkle, the two couldn’t be more different chemically. Cubic zirconia is a zirconium dioxide while zircon is a zirconium silicate. It’s like the chemical difference between sodium chloride, common table salt, and sodium carbonate, washing soda used to launder clothes. The names may be similar, but you’d never sprinkle sodium carbonate on your morning eggs!

The same degree of difference is true of zircon and cubic zirconia. Zircon is Earth’s oldest naturally occurring mineral. Tiny 4.4 billion year old grains of zircon have been found in quartz conglomerates in Western Australia. (The Earth’s age is currently dated at 4.56 billion years.) Only very rarely does zircon produce a gem-size crystal and these quickly degrade due to the mineral’s natural radiation. More commonly, small grains of this accessory mineral, eroded from igneous and metamorphic rocks in the Earth’s crust, are plentifully found in beach sand.

Another synthetic diamond look alike is moissanite, a silicon carbide that just came on the jewelry market last year. Found in nature only as a trace mineral in meteorites from outer space and in kimberlites, igneous rock formations that also produce diamonds, synthetic moissanite can now be lab grown to jewelry quality carat-size crystals.

Cubic zirconia, moissanite and natural diamonds are nearly identical to each other in appearance and physical properties. Cubic zirconia differs from diamonds in that cz has a higher specific gravity (it weighs nearly twice as much as a diamond) and lacks a diamond’s ability to conduct heat. Moissanite is slightly harder than cz and has a specific gravity slightly lower than a diamond’s. It can conduct heat but, unlike diamonds, also conducts electricity. Despite their differences, cubic zirconia has proved to be a more flexible gem substitute than moissanite because colored cz can be created in any color and cut into any shape, unlike its kissing cousin.