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About Moissanite

As seen on 20/20, Moissanite fools even professional jewelers and conventional diamond testers. Charles & Colvard-created Moissanite is the only synthetic diamond that has an incredible hardness rating of 9.25 out of 10 (10 being diamond) and has more fire, brilliance and luster than diamond. It is also only one-tenth of the cost of diamond.

Unlike other synthetic diamonds such as cubic zirconia, Moissanite diamonds are made from silicon and carbon through a combination of heat and pressure and has the closest physical properties to that of a diamond. Therefore, when tested with a conventional diamond tester, Moissanite passes as a "diamond".

Just like diamond, Moissanite is scratch resistant and will never fade, cloud or change colour after prolonged wear. All of our Moissanite jewels are accompanied by Charles & Colvard's Certificate of Authenticity and Limited Lifetime Warranty for Moissanite Jewellery.

History Of Moissanite

Thousands of years ago, fragments of a meteorite scattered across the Arizona desert when it crashed on earth.

In 1893, Dr. Henri Moissan, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, discovered natural silicon carbide in Arizona, while studying and analyzing fragments of this meteorite near the Diablo Canyon or Meteor Crater. Dr. Henri Moissan soon discovered the presence of very small quantities of this mineral that has fire and brilliance never before seen on earth. Upon further investigation and testing, it was discovered that the mineral was made of silicon carbide. In honour of Dr. Moisson, the mineral was named Moissanite in 1905.

Since it is very rare to obtain naturally occurring Moissanite, which is only found in minute quantities, years of research and development led to the discovery of special techniques through a combination of science and art to produce these special and rare Moissanite crystals in a lab.

It was in the late 1980's when a North Carolina company named CREE - the world leader in the manufacture of silicon carbide for electronic use - developed a process for producing large single crystals of Moissanite. In 1995, scientists from CREE and Charles & Colvard began a three-year research initiative and technique to properly cut the large crystals of silicon carbide into brilliant new Moissanite jewels.

Properties Of Moissanite

Overall, Moissanite's brilliance, dispersion or fire and luster are all better than diamond. Moissanite is unquestionably the most realistic diamond substitute ever created, where its hardness and scratch-resistant properties are better than all other gemstones and cubic zirconia. Below is a chart showing the comparison between Moissanite and diamond.
  REFRACTIVE INDEX
(Brilliance)
DISPERSION
(Fire)
LUSTER MOHS HARDNESS TOUGHNESS
Moissanite 2.65-2.69 0.104 20.4% 9.25 Excellent
Diamond 2.42 0.044 17.2% 10 Excellent

  • Brilliance: Brilliance relates to the refractive index of the jewel and is measured by the amount of light that enters the jewel and reflected back to the viewer.
  • Fire: Fire is the dispersion of light in a jewel. It also refers to how light breaks into the spectrum of colours and is measured by the amount of coloured flashes viewed as the jewel is placed under different lighting conditions.
  • Luster: Luster is the amount of light that the jewel reflects back to the observer from the surface of the jewel.
  • Durability: Durability is the toughness, hardness or the resistance to scratching, chipping or cleaving.

More information regarding Moissanite can be found at the Charles & Colvard website. Obviously, there have been many attempts to imitate real diamond due to its price and popularity. However, with the exception of Moissanite, all of their attempts lack the brilliance, luster and hardness of diamonds. Only Moissanite stacked up as the best diamond simulant ever, and is made of similar carbon element as diamond which is known for its hardness.

  • Physical Elements of Diamonds: They are the hardest naturally occurring minerals consisting of pure carbon crystals that form tightly by the bonding to four other carbon atoms. Their hardness is a result of the strength of the carbon bonds.
  • Physical Elements of Moissanite: Moissanite is the only synthetic diamond that is made of Silicon Carbide (SiC) which is also nearly as hard due to the presence of the carbon bonds. It is created under extreme heat (1200 degrees Celsius) and pressure (50,000 atmospheres). While Moissanite can easily withstand very high temperatures and its covalent bonding, similar to diamond, allows it to withstand very high pressures, Moissanite crystal does not respond to HPHT treatments in a fashion similar to Type IIa (virtually nitrogen-free) diamonds that can become near colorless after such treatments. For Charles & Colvard, Serenity Technologies, Inc has developed a radically different proprietary process of whitening Moissanite that greatly improves the color and brilliance of Moissanite without any residual negative effects. This product is called FOREVER BRILLIANT™ and FOREVER ONE™ Moissanite.

Colour And Clarity Of Moissanite, Forever Brilliant™ & Forever One™ Moissanites

While Classic Moissanites are "I-J" and FOREVER BRILLIANT™ are "G-H" in colour, which is similar to many diamonds which also fall into this range of colour, the FOREVER ONE™ Moissanites are remarkably whiter than the Classic and FOREVER BRILLANT™ Moissanites. Moissanites are typically VS1 in clarity when using the diamond grading system as a benchmark. See table below for colour and clarity grading scales for diamonds compared to Moissanites.
COLOUR GRADING SCALE FOR DIAMONDS
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Forever One

Colourless
Forever Classic
Brilliant


Near Colourless
Faint Colour Light Colour Obvious Colour
CLARITY GRADING SCALE FOR DIAMONDS
F IF VVS1 VVS2 VS1 VS2 SI1 SI2 SI3 I1 I2 I3
Visible Under 10 x Magnification Barely Visible to Eye Visible to Eye

Limited Lifetime Warranty And Certificate Of Authenticity

Charles & Colvard is committed to ensuring the quality and longevity of CLASSIC Moissanite, FOREVER BRILLIANT™ and FOREVER ONE™ gems. Each stone will be accompanied by a Charles & Colvard certification and the FOREVER BRILLIANT™ and FOREVER ONE™ Moissanites are laser inscribed on the girdle for easy identification. FOREVER BRILLIANT™ and FOREVER ONE™ Moissanite gemstones carry the same Limited Lifetime Warranty as all other Charles & Colvard Created Moissanite® gemstones for maintaining their optical property of brilliance.

Any other third-party alterations or enhancement treatments made to Moissanite created gemstones are not supported by Charles & Colvard. All our jewellery will come with Charles & Colvard's Limited Lifetime Warranty and Certificate of Authenticity card.

Learn More About Moissanite – Articles For Further Reading

At North Star Moissanite, we are happy to serve our customers all over the world with high-quality created Moissanite jewellery at very affordable prices, and we strive to provide a customer experience that is second-to-none. If you have any questions about our products or services, we are always here to answer them.

Additionally, below are links to articles that may help answer some of your questions.

Check back, as we will be adding more articles soon!