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Synthetic alexandrite is an artificially grown crystalline variety of chrysoberyl, composed of beryllium aluminum oxide (BeAl 2 O 4). The name is also often used erroneously to describe synthetically-grown corundum that simulates the appearance of alexandrite , but with a different mineral composition.
Alexandrite in sizes over three carats are very rare. Today, several labs can produce synthetic lab-grown stones with the same chemical and physical properties as natural alexandrite. Several methods can produce flux-grown alexandrite, Czochralski (or pulled) alexandrite, and hydrothermally-produced alexandrite.
However, the latter term is a misnomer: synthetic color-change sapphires are, technically, not synthetic alexandrites but rather alexandrite simulants. This is because genuine alexandrite is a variety of chrysoberyl: not sapphire, but an entirely different mineral from corundum. [22]
[4] [5] Most gemstones are hard, but some softer minerals such as brazilianite may be used in jewelry [6] because of their color or luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. However, generally speaking, soft minerals are not typically used as gemstones by virtue of their brittleness and lack of durability.
The Verneuil method (or Verneuil process or Verneuil technique), also called flame fusion, was the first commercially successful method of manufacturing synthetic gemstones, developed in the late 1883 [1] by the French chemist Auguste Verneuil.
Amber is used in jewelry and as a healing agent in folk medicine. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions . [ 3 ]
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