Silicon Carbide and Diamond
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide-bandgap semiconductor already widely used for electronic and photonic devices and hosts a number of colour centres.
Marketed as artefacts of otherworldly strength and beauty; at the brink of the 4IR, diamonds are awakening to a world where eco-consciousness; triggered by the ravages of ruthless habitat destruction, and overconsumption are driving an unprecedented consumer awakening.
Often at the crux of decadence and demonisation, CO2 or carbon is painted as the villain of our planetary story. Cited in popular culture as the harbinger of the apocalypse; the same carbon that creates diamonds and so-called doom is often uncredited as the giver of life.
As such, like most resources and elements of our world; it is not carbon that is the enemy, but it's exploitation that has redefined the fate of the Earth and its 10 billion inhabitants.
While much about the business of diamonds is shrouded in myth, apocryphal stories, dynastic wisdom and cautionary tales; the beauty of carbon is its versatility. So much can be made from its elemental lattice —from the air we breathe to the heart of a diamond.
This diamond dream of creating gleaming man-made stones harks back several centuries. Fictionalised in his 1911 short story, The Diamond Maker; sci-fi stalwart H.G.Wells envisioned re-creating the manic conditions within the heart of the earth; on its surface instead, in the quest for what we now know as lab-grown diamonds or LGDs. Today, courtesy of modern alchemy and precision-engineered proprietary manufacturing processes; this work of fiction is now a commercial fairy tale that is helping save the world. One carat at a time.
Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is interesting in the sense that it mimics how diamonds are formed in space (and not the earth as seen in the older variation; HPHT). Akin to how the super hard lattices might form in interstellar gas clouds; the CVD process uses C02 to formulate hydrocarbons that are deposited atom by atom over a diamond seed —growing in their crystal chrysalis across weeks; thus bringing you diamonds that arrive a billion years faster than their mined counterparts.
According to a comparative study by Frost and Sullivan called Environmental Impact Analysis, the emission disparity between LGDs and mined diamonds is astounding. The report has detailed how mined diamonds produce more than 125 pounds of carbon per carat while LGDs emit a measly 6 pounds of carbon which translates to 4.8% or 4,383 times less waste as compared to their mined counterparts.
Additionally, in terms of overall gaseous emissions, the LGD process involves little or no emissions of significance whereas air emissions incurred due to a single carat of mined diamond are 1.5 billion times higher; as per the study.
As per numerous professional calculations, choosing carbon negative LGDs implies working with materials that remove more carbon from the ecosystem than they effectively emit during an entire life cycle; thus facilitating environmental benefits.
Thus, poised to diminish the planet-wide red alert, carbon-negative diamonds are likely to become the pièce de resistance for conscious consumers invested in offsetting carbon inequity. Whereas a majority of mined diamonds are manufactured using dubiously sourced carbon from fossil fuels that are responsible for soil erosion, deforestation, and environmental degradation, lab-grown diamonds are made by extracting carbon dioxide via green energy sources, carbon credits, sequestering or carbon capture technologies —essentially turning the entire operation into a carbon sink.
Created atom-by-atom in carbon-rich chambers from ethically sourced C02; the LGD process is precision-controlled to produce conscious and eco-friendly diamonds. LGDs like the nuovo diamond are made in compliance with international protocols and regulations across production processes that not only offer safety but also consistency. Eco-friendly and carbon-negative, nuovo diamonds are created using a modest amount of electricity accessed from renewable sources. Like every reputed LGD house, the nuovo diamond is carbon certified via a comprehensive, full third-party audit.
On the contrary, mined diamonds use two types of finite energy sources in large quantities that cause more natural disasters than natural diamonds. These are: unsustainable usage of electricity and hydrocarbons, both of which cause unprecedented levels of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases to be released despite attempts to create accountability and traceability over the years. Additionally, large amounts of water, chemicals and hazardous substances are all prerequisites for the mining process.
It is no wonder then, that lab-grown diamonds have received serious push-back from diamond miners due to vested interests aimed at discrediting the innovation through subjective assertions and sparse self-reported, or mining industry-backed data.
Unlike mined diamonds, LGDs like nuovo diamonds produce close to a negligible amount of waste which is recycled and disposed of, through environmentally friendly methods. Clean and modern minus the assembly lines, carbon-audited ‘mega carat’ LGD factories release process generated oxygen into the air while offsetting harmful C02 emissions using green energy sources. In a sense, the essence of LGD production functions like a created forest cover —releasing pure oxygen without any water or air pollution while utilising carbon to create gleaming diamonds.
An analysis per the Global C02 Initiative by the University of Michigan, details that the carbon-negative sector —of which LGDs have a significant role to play, could have the potential to reduce the world’s CO2 emissions by more than 10%. According to several industry pundits, these numbers will consolidate LGDs —belonging to an important corps of consumer-facing, cleantech; into pushing themselves to reach government and corporate-mandated net-zero commitments.
The contemporary consumer is attracted by green labels. Not exactly a green-tax, but conscious production cycles are now being favoured despite premium prices owing to their eco-friendly credentials.
The distinction between LGDs and their natural counterparts is neither optical nor chemical. Instead, it is environmental and planetary. In light of this; real, precious, genuine and sustainable diamonds are generating interest as well as purchase desire. This heralds a new way of making carbon mobile within our economy without any destructive results. Employing a conscious cradle-to-grave approach, LGDs like the #nuovodiamond could be game-changing when it comes to the global carbon footprint —whether it is emissions, raw material extraction, sourcing, production and distribution or energy use.
Reinventing consumption into solution, nuovo diamonds offer the opportunity to create carbon-to-value not just commercially but also technologically for reversing our current climate emergency.
As things stand, the world is depleting itself in lieu of mined diamonds —fast-pushing itself into a looming death spiral in the quest for earth-torn gemstones. With most major mines on the brink of exhaustion, sound logic rooted in self-preservation dictates that we embrace technology’s glittering fruits of labour without grandstanding for an untenable future.
It is time that we untether ourselves from the unsustainable history and romanticism of mined diamonds in exchange for a tomorrow built on better solutions for people and the planet too. Thus, the moral of this nuovo diamond LGD story may just showcase how becoming negative, can actually achieve a positive outcome for our world —one super gem at a time.
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide-bandgap semiconductor already widely used for electronic and photonic devices and hosts a number of colour centres.
Why the physical & chemical properties of wide bandgap semiconductors —silicon carbide & diamond are ideal for device fabrication, for application in many different areas
- Growth of diamond–SiC composite layers - Detailed composition and mechanical properties study - Enhanced scratch resistivity of layers
GaN is truly a wonder material and vastly improves thermal properties like diamond heat spreading when grown on CVD wafers. Read more in this article.
Carbon is the sixth element in the periodic table. The basis of all life in our world and also its hardest elemental expression —the diamond.
The diamond of the future is emerging from its invented chrysalis, one carat at a time in the heart of plasma reactors.
With the help of conscious tech and climate holistics the present and future of the planet may yet be salvageable.
How the erstwhile colonial diamond has been replaced by science and serendipity to create a versatile supermaterial that looks towards the future
Marketed as artefacts of otherworldly strength and beauty; at the brink of the 4IR, diamonds are awakening to a world of unprecedented consumer awakening.
Digging deep into the heart of the earth in order to pry out the most coveted and controversial form of carbon, known as diamonds, is nothing new.
