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Main sapphire-producing countries. Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide (α-Al 2 O 3) with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon.
Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3) typically containing traces of iron, titanium, vanadium, and chromium. [3] [4] It is a rock-forming mineral.It is a naturally transparent material, but can have different colors depending on the presence of transition metal impurities in its crystalline structure. [7]
In black star sapphire hematite needles formed parallel to the faces of the second order prism produce asterism. Some star sapphires from Thailand contain both hematite and rutile needles forming a 12-ray star. [3] Star-stones were formerly regarded with much superstition. [1]
Even the same named gemstone can occur in many different colors: sapphires show different shades of blue and pink and "fancy sapphires" exhibit a whole range of other colors from yellow to orange-pink, the latter called "padparadscha sapphire". [39] This difference in color is based on the atomic structure of the stone.
The droplets gradually form a sinter cone on the rod, the tip of which is close enough to the core to remain liquid. It is at that tip that the seed crystal eventually forms. As more droplets fall onto the tip, a single crystal , called a boule , starts to form, and the support is slowly moved downward, allowing the base of the boule to ...
Apple is applying for a patent on a process to make high-quality sapphire materials. At the same time, crystal materials manufacturing specialist GT Advanced Technologies is moving out of the ...
A rare type of sapphire, padparadscha sapphire, is pink-orange. The name "corundum" is derived from the Tamil - Dravidian word kurundam (ruby-sapphire) (appearing in Sanskrit as kuruvinda ). Because of corundum's hardness (pure corundum is defined to have 9.0 on the Mohs scale ), it can scratch almost all other minerals.
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