A group of engineers led by R. Martin Roscheisen has discovered a new way to make synthetic "jewelry-grade" diamonds. Roscheisen, founder of Nanosolar, is also using technology from his old company to aid in the creation of these diamonds.
His new company, Diamond Foundry, also claims that their high-grade diamonds can be made more quickly and cost-effectively than current methods. In fact, Roscheisen's process allows the "culture" of these diamonds at costs which are at par with the best natural diamonds, New York Times reported.
That being said, the company seems to have gotten the thumbs up of its many high-profile investors. Diamond Foundry got a fresh injection of capital from Zynga founder Mark Pincus, a Twitter founder Evan Williams, a founder of Sun Microsystems and Google investor Andreas Bechtolsheim, and a Facebook founder Andrew McCollum, Tech Crunch reported.
Rounding up the gang is actor Leonardo DiCaprio. His story is a bit more interesting. He approached the company because of his concern for ethical standards in conventional diamond mining, especially environmental impact.
Diamond Foundry, interestingly enough, will also buy solar power credits to achieve carbon footprint neutrality. This will help bolster the company as it positions itself as a sustainable alternative to diamond mining.
The technology is called chemical vapor deposition. It works by first using a very thin slice of a natural mined diamond. From here, a plasma field would be manipulated and more diamond material would be deposited, layer after layer, Steelers Lounge noted.
Diamond Foundry's technique is much, much faster than industry standards. Their process will create pure diamonds at 150 times the speed of current techniques. The products are also 100% pure white and are quite stunning to see. Roscheisen says, "Experts in jewelry stores and gemologists cannot tell." He added, "There's nothing they can see."
