What is Cubic Zirconia?

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What is Cubic Zirconia?

Cubic Zirconia (often referred to as "CZ", and sometimes errorneously as "Cubic Zirconium") is a crystalline form of Zirconium dioxide (ZrO²).

Crystals of Cubic Zirconia are optically flawless, and can have a fairly close visual resemblence to diamond, so are often used as a diamond simulant in jewelry. Additionally, although Cubic Zirconia is normally colorless, adding trace impurities (dopants) of metal oxides to the crystals, can result in a wide variety of colors including golden brown, green, orange, pink, purple, red, and yellow - making Cubic Zirconia an interesting and unusual gem stone in its own right.

Cubic Zirconia gem stones:

Although natural forms of crystalline Zircon dioxide have been known in minerals since the 19th century (they were first discovered in Sri Lanka in 1892), natural forms of Cubic Zirconia are extremely rare. As a result, all Cubic Zirconia used in jewelery is synthetic.

The technique used to manufacture crystals of Cubic Zirconia was first perfected by Soviet scientists working at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow in 1973 using a technique known as the "Skull Crucible", which was invented to solve the problem that Cubic Zirconia's melting point is too high even for Platinum crucibles. The Skull Crucible technique relies on heating (using radio frequency induction) a mass of Zirconium oxide powder, and allowing the outer layers of the material to act as their own crucible. After the material cools, the outer shell is discarded, and the interior is used for gemstones.

Opening Cubic Zirconia skull crucible:

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