The first thing you have to know about simulated diamonds is that simulated diamonds are not synthetic diamonds. Synthetic diamonds are chemically identical to natural diamonds, except they have been created by man in a giant cruncher. They are both made of carbon, though synthetic diamonds are generally less perfectly formed than natural diamonds.Simulated diamonds, on the other hand, aren’t diamonds at all. They’re just posers. The most famous simulated diamondis cubic zirconium, chemically known as zirconium oxide.
How to tell the difference? You can either go to a jeweler and he’ll do his hocus pocus and give you an answer, or you can read this blog about simulated diamonds. There are generally two different types of methods of determining simulated diamonds from the real thing, quadruply bonded carbon in a lattice. There are destructive methods, which tend to piss people off a bit because it involves destroying their jewelry, and there are non-destructive methods. Destructive methods include trying to scratch or destroy the suspected simulated diamond. This is a very bad idea, since even real diamonds have structural weak points and can be split along those points. Also, even simulated diamonds can be valuable in their own right. A much better way to spot simulated diamonds is the non destructive method.
There are several strategies. The easiest one is to examine the stone visually. If there are scratches and chips and a lack of luster, your stone is probably a simulated diamond. This rests on the assumption that no diamond or aggregated diamond nanorods have come into direct contact with your stone, whatever it is, and therefore since those two substances are the only two things that can scratch a diamond, your stone, if scratched, must have been scratched by something else, meaning you have a simulated diamond on your hands.
Another method is to pull an Archimedes-style Eureka. If you have a suspected stone of a certain volume, take a diamond of the same volume and see if their weights are different. Get one of those scales that you find in chemistry lab. If they’re different, you’ve got a simulated diamond on your hands.
Finally, there is the electrical conductivity test. Two thermistors are are mounted on a copper tip, one transmitting electrical energy, and the other measuring the temperature of the copper tip. The suspected diamond simulant is placed on the copper tip, and if it is diamond, it will absorb the electrical energy and cause a temperature drop in the copper. If it is a simulated diamond, the tip will remain hot.
