Synthetic sapphire is a trivial example of a transparent ceramic made with aluminium. Its formula is something very close to Al_2 O_3.
Transparent ceramics made with aluminum
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Re: Transparent ceramics made with aluminum
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think they used transparent aluminum in Star Trek IV. I thought they paid for whatever they used (plexiglass?) with the recipe for transparent aluminum. Although it could just be that I'm forgiving the poor writing.
Yes, it seems that way from the script. But then, why a transparent material? (The answer of course is they're building an aquarium tank, and aquarium tanks are see through or have windows into it so humans can spectate. If they wanted to just bring whales back, they probably would have just flooded some crew room.)
Because a company that sells transparent materials like plexiglass can see the use of an innovative formula for a new transparent material.
It seems logical to me - it just had nothing directly to do with their whale-transporting plans.
Re: Transparent ceramics made with aluminum
#83This isn't new, I've read articles on AlON before.
Synthetic Sapphire is more interesting in that its use is growing quickly due to demand for LED and laser substrates. Large single crystals are grown and sliced into wafers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyropoulos_process
New producers of the High purity Alumina (HPA) needed to produce sapphire are coming online, perhaps prices will come down enough that phone screens are an application, but I suspect that this is marketing speculation from the HPA makers to attract investors. For example this presentation from a HPA company speculated in 2015 that the iphone 7 would use a sapphire screen, which turned out to be wrong: https://www.altechchemicals.com/sites/altechchemicals.com/fi...
Re: Transparent ceramics made with aluminum
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Am I the only one to recoil at the thought of someone chewing transparent aluminum foil? The potential is tremendous in aviation. Imagine transparent aircraft skins -- the superstructure and internals (fuel tanks, hydraulics, etc.) could be inspected without disassembly (which itself adds stress to the structure). Though I'm not sure passengers would take kindly to aircraft with transparent skins. Sometimes it's best…
You could wrap the cabin interior with OLED panels that are normally active and opaque during flight. Then, when you're on a longhaul and it's time to wake the passengers up - turn them off in midair. Good morning!
Brilliant. If the sudden increase in luminosity didn't wake you, the screams of fellow passengers looking through the invisible floor at the ground/Ocean 30,000 feet below would surely do the trick!