Alconox for Diamond Evaluation

Q. I conduct diamond evaluations for a gem company and need to be able to clean diamonds with minimal effort.

A. I recommend using a 1% Alconox detergent solution (1.25 oz/gal or 10 g/L) in an ultrasonic tank for a few minutes to clean diamonds. You will be very impressed with the results. Although Alconox is intended for use in cleaning laboratory glassware, it is an excellent diamond cleaner. It takes a strong wetting agent to remove oils from the hydrophobic surface of diamonds. Once you remove the light interfering oil residues that are attracted to the diamond surface, the diamonds really sparkle and refract light to their full potential.

For information on Alconox Cleaner, see this Alconox Technical Bulletin.  Or click here for the Alconox Material Data Safety Sheets.