Diamond simulants are materials that look like diamond, but they have different chemical compositions. Diamond simulants can be natural materials such as colorless zircon or sapphire. More often they are man-made materials such as cubic zirconia (ZrO2), moissanite (SiC), YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet Y3Al5O12), or strontium titanate (SrTiO3).
Diamond simulants: The photos above compare strontium titanate, moissanite, and cubic zirconia with diamond. Moissanite and cubic zirconia have dispersions that are competitive with diamond, and the dispersion of strontium titanate is over-the-top. In the photo above, the strontium titanate is a 6-millimeter round. The other stones are 4-millimeter rounds. This difference in size does give strontium titanate an advantage.
