Large size of artificial diamond created by CVD process

As the hardest material in this world, diamond has a lot of applications other than gem for jewelry, such as cutting tools and abrasives. Industrial diamond is usually created by high temperature and high pressure process, to imitate the environment deep in the earth which produced nature diamond. However, due to the limit of cost and demand, although in large volume, this process only provide small grain diamonds.  

Due to the demand for large diamond from the industrial is low, the production of artificial diamond is limited to be powder like small grains for a very long time. And, the extremely high melting point of carbon also made it almost impossible to make diamonds like other crystals such as sapphire, which is grow the crystal from molten raw material. However, a recent published research illustrated a new way to synthesize large size artificial diamond. The German research group has started the research using CVD (chemical vapor deposition) technology to make diamond since 1991. The scientists has made an 155 carat diamond with 92 mm diameter with a CVD process as long as 26 years. This success demonstrate the end of domination for natural diamond in large size diamond market. Although CVD is a very slow process in creating a piece of macro scale material, it has the capability to make almost perfect crystal and potential to manufacture large piece of material in industrial production scale. There will be more investment in CVD creating materials in next decade, and the process will be optimized soon if there is enough demand.