The cherished dream of every woman is to have a piece of jewelry with a diamond. In recent years, a lot of products with artificial stones (zircons, cubic zirkonia) of the highest quality have appeared on sale, and it is completely incomprehensible at first glance - how to distinguish cubic zirconia from a diamond? To do this, you need to know a little about the origin of phianites and their characteristics.
What is cubic zirconia?
Fianite is a synthetic crystal artificially created in the laboratory of the USSR FIAN, which is zirconium dioxide in its structure. This material was originally intended not for jewelry at all, it was necessary to create a laser, as it was one of its constituent elements. This artificial crystal had the desired optical properties and was free from defects that are inherent in natural stones. Its first purpose is a high quality lens for optical devices, quantum generators. Cubic Zirconia withstands aggressive environments, high temperatures (more than 2,500 degrees), which allows it to be used in the chemical industry. But thanks to its high physical characteristics, the purest cubic zirconia crystal began to be used very quickly in jewelry asartificial diamond. How to distinguish cubic zirconia from a diamond?
There are special gemological tests to determine which stone is in front of you. By the way, cubic zirconia can imitate sapphires, rubies and other stones. A little observation and knowledge about the composition of crystals - and you can show a master class "How to distinguish cubic zirconia from a diamond."
Choose a diamond
The first and most important quality of a diamond is its hardness. According to the scale of hardness of minerals, diamond occupies the highest level, that is, it cannot be scratched by anything, only with the same diamond. Fianite is much softer. You can try to run a diamond on glass and it will leave a scratch. Cubic Zirconia is not able to scratch hard minerals, even ordinary glass.
The next moment is the inclusion. All natural stones have inclusions to some extent - cracks, color changes, etc. You should know that diamonds of the purest water (without inclusions) are extremely rare in nature and they are fabulously expensive.
Try looking at the light through a cut diamond - a brilliant. If it is a real stone, you will only see a glowing dot in the center due to the refraction of the rays from the back faces. But light passes through the artificial crystal, and you can see through the large artificial stone in the ring the finger on which this ring is worn.
But the most reliable test is conducted by a gemologist for thermal conductivity. This requires a special device. It will show the level of thermal conductivity withstone surface. Natural diamond has a very high thermal conductivity. It is impossible to create an artificial crystal with the same high value.
And the easiest way to distinguish cubic zirconia from a diamond is by price. How much is a cubic zirconia and a diamond of the same size? Even a small diamond with low performance is a valuable natural stone. Therefore, jewelry with diamonds, even with diamond chips, will be much more expensive than jewelry with large and pure, but artificial cubic zirconia.
