Why are some diamonds colored and others not?

What gives colored diamonds their color and why are many colored diamonds so rare to found in nature? The answer can be found by examining diamond's chemical structure. The colored diamonds can thank their color either to corruption from other elements than carbon or deformation of the carbon atoms.

This basically means that colored diamonds have certain flaws and impurities in form of elements other than carbon. The number of these elements is however limited and includes the following elements: Nitrogen, Boron, Phosphorus, Hydrogen, Nickel, Cobalt, Silicon, and Sulfur.

Blue diamonds are very rarely found in nature and their blue color is the result of boron atoms found in the diamond lattice.

Even rarer colored diamonds are red and pink diamonds. The researchers believe that their color isn't the result of presence of some other element but is caused by a specific deformation of carbon atoms structure caused by change of electrons that somehow occurs in a process of traveling through mantle to earth's surface.

Green colored diamonds are usually the result of exposure to radiation. Since the radiation affects only superficial particles green diamonds are very demanding for polishing because one has to be very careful not to remove its color.

Black diamonds are becoming increasingly popular these days. Their black color is the result of the presence of graphite and iron, or to be more precise clusters of graphite and iron that have found their way in diamond's lattice.

Brown and yellow diamonds are the most common colored diamonds found in nature. Their color is caused by the presence of nitrogen atoms in the lattice.

Scientific and technological advances have also lead to creation of colored diamonds in the laboratories and today there are several different methods used to artificially create colored diamonds. These diamonds have exactly the same properties like natural colored diamonds but come with significantly lower price tag.