Diam Concept is one of the start-ups that Erganeo supports and accompanies. Find below an article in French published on the capital.fr website
A Parisian start-up manages to produce diamonds in a few weeks that are identical to those extracted from a mine and cheaper. Will synthetic diamonds overshadow authentic diamonds, to the great displeasure of mining companies? A start-up company located north of Paris has succeeded in the challenge of "growing" diamonds in a few weeks that are identical to those extracted from a mine and cheaper. It is about to intensify its production, taking advantage of the breakthrough of laboratory stones on the jewelry market. In a room cluttered with noisy machines, two engineers observe through a porthole five small mounds that glow in a thousand degree furnace: it will take them between three and six weeks to become diamonds, while the average age of gems formed underground is one billion years.
"Diamond is only carbon. We are therefore creating the conditions for this carbon to settle atom by atom, and diamonds grow like cakes," summarized AFP Alix Gicquel, 64, president of the company Diam Concept, housed in a laboratory of the CNRS at the University of Paris 13. This researcher has 30 years of work behind her: in 1987, at a conference in Japan, she discovered that diamonds can be created thanks to "plasma" - this fourth state of matter with solids, liquids and gases, which is precisely what she is studying.
Find the full article in French on the Capital.fr website HERE
