Memorial diamonds are diamonds created from hair or cremated remains.
Typically, these are real diamonds created in a laboratory, often referred to as "synthetic diamonds", "cultured diamonds", or "laboratory-grown diamonds". Some memorial diamonds are certificated by gemological laboratories, such as Gemological Institute of America (US) or Birmingham Assay Office (United Kingdom).
First introduced by LifeGem, memorial diamonds are gaining popularity in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Japan and many other countries.
Memorial diamonds are produced from hair or ashes.
In case of hair, it is subjected to heat treatment to extract carbon. Some laboratories also analyse content of hair. A hair analysis report then serves as a client assurance. The process of unique identification of a diamond and a person based on the hair composition is described in the diamond patent RU2282584 [1]
Carbon can be obtained from cremated human or animal remains in a particulate or gaseous form. The carbon is then filtered using a conventional filtering technique. The carbon and other elements are then purified and graphitized, for example by a halogen purification technique. [2]
The diamonds are then produced from the extracted carbon extracted using conventional diamond synthesis techniques. As of 2009, only High Pressure, High Temperature (HPHT) processes using belt and cubic presses are used for the production of memorial diamonds.