Irregular Rough Rubies

[LEDbeam]

I'm not Italian so no. Aluminium oxide and chromium oxide. Corundum (Sapphire/Ruby) is crystalline aluminium oxide with impurities. Rubies have Chromium oxide impurities which turn them from white into pinkish red. So you mix in a small quantity of chromium oxide into the aluminium oxide powder till it goes a weak green colour.

I just put your post through Google translate starting at the word "Aluminum". Here's what I got:

Ossido di alluminio e ossido di cromo. Il corindone (zaffiro/rubino) è ossido di alluminio cristallino con impurità. I rubini contengono impurità di ossido di cromo che li trasformano dal bianco al rosso rosato. Quindi si mescola una piccola quantità di ossido di cromo alla polvere di ossido di alluminio fino a ottenere una leggera colorazione verde.

 

[Encap]

Actual high quality saleable commercial ruby creation from powdered Al oxide and Cr oxide have been produced for a very long time establish by Auguste Verneuil and is not a mystery of any kind.

"Verneuil came to the conclusion that it was possible to recrystallize finely ground aluminum oxide into a large gemstone. This realization, along with the availability of the recently developed oxyhydrogen torch and growing demand for synthetic rubies, led him to design the Verneuil furnace, where finely ground purified alumina and chromium oxide were melted by a flame of at least 2,000 °C (3,630 °F), and recrystallized on a support below the flame, creating a large crystal. Verneuil documented his work in sealed documents during the 1890s and publicly announced his work in 1902, publishing details outlining the process in 1904"

See details at :

Verneuil method - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[CurtisOliver]

This is the closest match to the method I and Styropyro adopted.

Laser-heated pedestal growth - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The difference is it wasn't crucible free.

 

[Snecho]

They are effectively worthless for lab rubies. They hold value only based on their experimental production and if you happen to be a famous individual.

If you make a couple good enough. You could try to facet. But they won’t be facet grade.

You could probably use the laser-created rubies as a heatbank or heatsinking properties

 

[SĤ𝕒∂όⓦŁ𝔸ŜєR]

I just put your post through Google translate starting at the word "Aluminum". Here's what I got:

Ossido di alluminio e ossido di cromo. Il corindone (zaffiro/rubino) è ossido di alluminio cristallino con impurità. I rubini contengono impurità di ossido di cromo che li trasformano dal bianco al rosso rosato. Quindi si mescola una piccola quantità di ossido di cromo alla polvere di ossido di alluminio fino a ottenere una leggera colorazione verde.

Thx for the translation

 

[SĤ𝕒∂όⓦŁ𝔸ŜєR]

I have to see where I can get the two powders, once I find them, I make a 1:1 ratio, mix them well until I get a slightly faint green and then I shoot at it with two 5.5W laser modules, until I see the formation of an irregular ball of a certain size, as regards the faceting, I can ask some professional goldsmith if he can work them for me, giving them the original faceted shape of the pink ruby.

Are these other ones of different colors always rubies? Or what? I think they are different powders.

 

[CurtisOliver]

The powders are very easy to obtain. You don't use a 1:1 ratio. I clearly didn't state that. The more chromium oxide you add, the more difficult it will be to create a floating zone. Chromium oxides melting point is much higher than aluminium oxide. Even with a 60W CO2, blasting pure chromium oxide presented a challenge. And the relationship of the increased ratio of chromium oxide was quite clear that I was unable to produce well formed ruby balls. Adding more chromium oxide also does very little to the colour center of the crystal, so its pointless and a waste. The base material is aluminium oxide only. If you melt it pure, you get a white sapphire. Its the trace chromium oxide that changes it into that iconic pinkish red. Its that exact reason why my first test was succesful using filed dust from stainless steel as the impurity. Stainless steel contains chromium.

Rubies are the mineral corundum. So is sapphire. Red corundum is ruby, any other colour is sapphire. They are formed the same way, but with different impurities and concentrations. Ruby has chromium impurities, the blue sapphires typically have iron and titanium impurities.

In order to blast aluminium oxide with a visible laser, you will need to reach a threshold. I will be surprised if 11W will be enough. You will also need to wear laser goggles for definite. The powder glows incredibly bright and will also reflect most of the blue light.

You also need to be realistic. You will not produce high quality crystals of ruby. Especially through your method, you can not also expect any large useful pieces of ruby either. Most crystals will be slightly amorphous as the rapid cooling does not allow the atomic structures to properly align. And the rapid heating and cooling also adds stress and internal fractures. This means for the most part, my rubies had obvious defects, were mostly opaque with the occasional impressive translucent balls. These will not be easy to facet, and will most likely not be worth faceting. And if you think you will be able to sell them, then you can get flawless cut lab grown rubies for very cheap nowadays.

Trust me, this is a niche science experiment, and may have some niche applications but they are not viable gemstones for marketing.

I was working on them as a really cool in house project for work. It would have been very interesting if we did a jewellery project using rubies/sapphires we made in house. But it wasn't truly viable even for this.

 

[SĤ𝕒∂όⓦŁ𝔸ŜєR]

I understood, so in the end it is easier to create a sapphire than a ruby .. I wanted to try to try to make a ruby, but I found on the market, only on Amazon unfortunately or aluminum oxide for sandblashing, or chrome oxide in powder always, but directly of a green bottle color .. so it would be difficult to mix waiting for a small green ... One reason! I did it just to try, since in the video style it made it easy, but in reality it is not easy at all!

So by merging only aluminum oxide do you get a white ruby?

 

[CurtisOliver]

I understood, so in the end it is easier to create a sapphire than a ruby .. I wanted to try to try to make a ruby, but I found on the market, only on Amazon unfortunately or aluminum oxide for sandblashing, or chrome oxide in powder always, but directly of a green bottle color .. so it would be difficult to mix waiting for a small green ... One reason! I did it just to try, since in the video style it made it easy, but in reality it is not easy at all!

So by merging only aluminum oxide do you get a white ruby?

Firstly, there is no such thing as white ruby. Let me try to make this as clear as I can.
If the corundum is red, it is ruby. If not red then it is a sapphire.
The name Ruby and sapphire refers strictly to a variety of corundum. Red corundum is the variety known as ruby. The ruby has to be of 50% or more red. If it’s more pink than red then it’s a pink sapphire. Therefore there is no white rubies. Nor is there red sapphires.

Making sapphires or rubies are equally very easy. Making quality usable sapphires/rubies however is what is difficult. Other methods are far superior to using a laser to make them. Encap already shared a commercial method for producing them. A laser is just a brute force method for overheating the powders to coalesce and form a crystalline blob.

 

[SĤ𝕒∂όⓦŁ𝔸ŜєR]

Yep I wrote it wrong, I should have written sapphire and I wrote ruby, you were very clear, so is aluminum oxide okay for sapphire? Or do I have to use stainless steel oxide like you did? How long should the cup with the powder stay under the laser beam? Is half an hour enough? Should the amount of powder be added based on a weight? Or randomly, like filling half a cup?

 

[CurtisOliver]

so is aluminum oxide okay for sapphire?

I'll answer these questions for the sake of others, but I do feel like I am repeating now.

Sapphire is aluminium oxide. So is ruby.

Corundum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.mindat.org/min-1136.html

Al203 is the formula of aluminium oxide/alumina. Corundum is crystalline alumina.

The chemistry is simple and commonplace.
Like many other crystals out there, colour centers highly depend on impurities. These impurities can be additional chemistry that makes it into the crystal structure. Or can be caused by environmental disturbance during formation, ie irradiation.

Corundum colour centers are chemistry based.
The chemical makeup will always consist of the majority being alumina (Al203). Sometimes it only takes a fraction of a percent of another chemical to alter the colour of the mineral.

Or do I have to use stainless steel oxide like you did?

No, this was my first crude attempt at getting some chromium to test with before I went out and bought some pure powder. It showed how easy it actually was considering I got sucessful rubies just from stainless steel dust. The only drawback was the other impurities alongside. So I got black, brown and white sapphires alongside occasionally.

How long should the cup with the powder stay under the laser beam? Is half an hour enough?

No, if your laser is strong enough you will always get results with less than a minute of exposure. Sometimes I kept the laser source on for longer so I could collapse the powder wall around it so more melted and coalesced with the molten ruby. But a single ruby can be created in seconds using this method.

Should the amount of powder be added based on a weight? Or randomly, like filling half a cup?

This depends on how precise you actually want to be, and how experimental you want to be.
For you, you should just try melting the alumina first. To see if you even can. This will tell you how succesful you'll be in forming a sapphire/ruby. And as you haven't added any impurities, it should be a white sapphire. If you notice anything other than white. Especially brown/black, then you know your process isn't pure and you know that your crucible is leaking contaminents.

I started using steel for the crucible, but when I penetrated too deep into the powder, the steel added iron oxide into the mix. I then changed to aluminium as a crucible material as it only adds aluminium oxide anyway.

 

[Encap]

Curtis:
You are just being played by attention whore troll 3D. He has never made anything other than delusional daydream troll posts and nothing he is ever going to make will be worth more than $0.00 ruby, laser or otherwise. He doesn't even comprehend the basic fundamentals of what you are talking about much less have the resources to do anything. 3D is a delusional nut case with zero experience, knowledge, resources, or skills at anything but his imaginary world daydreams and attention whore troll posts.

3D aka Shadow Lasers aka is a penniless destitute Italian attention whore troll in Italy that has been banned dozens of times using different nicknames fake personas, and has posted 100s of meaningless troll posts now because there are no longer any Mods on LPF to ban him again. He has no real world direct laser experience, knowledge ,or skills beyond pushing the on button on a couple of low cost low quality Chinese pointers. Shadow lasers has no credibility whatsoever among Italians in Italy, on LPF or anywhere on the internet. He doesn't even read or write English and just uses a translation program to make obsessive delusional moronic stupid troll posts.

Shadow Laser is pretending he is not who and what he really is. He proves again and again and again he is psychosis level delusional and has nothing to say or do and nobody to say or do it with.
He also always proves he has the mentality, emotional maturity, and impulse control of a not too bright 5 to 7 year old + is "insignificant, angry, and alone" like all trolls are.
His opinions are meaningless garbage posts as they are just 3D playing pretend.
3D aka Shadow laser's posts are 100% meaningless nonsense troll posts, playing pretend, and devoid of any direct real world knowledge , skills or experience.

The bottom line re: 3D aka shadow laser is always the same . He is a delusional psychotic idiot attention whore troll.
3D aka Shadow Laser is, has always been, and always will be "nothing with nothing" and is nothing on LPF, in Italy among Italians, and on the internet in general.
3D has proven repeatedly he is an incredibly stupid completely delusional self-centered imbecile.
All he has ever done on LPF is post parasite nonsense gibberish troll posts for attention pretending he is not who and what he is. All 3D's posts have ever been is delusional uneducated Italian moron level troll posts.

The quote below is the real face of psychotic completely self-absorbed delusional 3D aka Shadow laser who wrote in post 31 of the "Lasers Collection" thread:
"Just for people like you, Alaskan, Unown, and those pieces of shit that were there before and that always and only made fun of me, I had set myself the goal of making you pay one day, that day has come, I made sure that LPF became what it is now.. DEAD, with no one participating anymore, I brought LPF to destruction.. and the blame for all this is only yours and your insults and false ways of doing things..
I am smarter than YOU can think, far from being sick and shit.. I am in excellent health, I made fun of YOU again because that is what you deserve ... you are pieces of shit ...
LPF IS DEAD FOREVER, AND BY MY HAND!
My job is done forever! Now I can enjoy life in your face ...
You are left with a forum torn to pieces.. ahahahahahah"

It is worth repeating again for good measure Ron White's observation. "You Can't Fix Stupid"/"Non puoi rimed stupid"which applies 100% to 3D aka Shadow Laser and all of his pretend playtime fake personas and psychotic level attention whore troll posts. It is worth posting the Ron White clip again as the clip applies 100% to 3D aka Shadow Laser.

 

[SĤ𝕒∂όⓦŁ𝔸ŜєR]

I'll answer these questions for the sake of others, but I do feel like I am repeating now.

Sapphire is aluminium oxide. So is ruby.

Corundum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.mindat.org/min-1136.html

Al203 is the formula of aluminium oxide/alumina. Corundum is crystalline alumina.

The chemistry is simple and commonplace.
Like many other crystals out there, colour centers highly depend on impurities. These impurities can be additional chemistry that makes it into the crystal structure. Or can be caused by environmental disturbance during formation, ie irradiation.

Corundum colour centers are chemistry based.
The chemical makeup will always consist of the majority being alumina (Al203). Sometimes it only takes a fraction of a percent of another chemical to alter the colour of the mineral.

No, this was my first crude attempt at getting some chromium to test with before I went out and bought some pure powder. It showed how easy it actually was considering I got sucessful rubies just from stainless steel dust. The only drawback was the other impurities alongside. So I got black, brown and white sapphires alongside occasionally.


No, if your laser is strong enough you will always get results with less than a minute of exposure. Sometimes I kept the laser source on for longer so I could collapse the powder wall around it so more melted and coalesced with the molten ruby. But a single ruby can be created in seconds using this method.


This depends on how precise you actually want to be, and how experimental you want to be.
For you, you should just try melting the alumina first. To see if you even can. This will tell you how succesful you'll be in forming a sapphire/ruby. And as you haven't added any impurities, it should be a white sapphire. If you notice anything other than white. Especially brown/black, then you know your process isn't pure and you know that your crucible is leaking contaminents.

I started using steel for the crucible, but when I penetrated too deep into the powder, the steel added iron oxide into the mix. I then changed to aluminium as a crucible material as it only adds aluminium oxide anyway.

Ok Ok.. I understand.