Definition and Characteristics of Sapphire Industry in 2015

Sapphire comes from the Latin Spphins whose meaning is blue. It belongs to the corundum mineral, with trigonal system. All kinds of gem grade corundum except ruby are called sapphire. Sapphire and ruby, emerald and tanzania stone all belong to colored gemstones.

Corundum contains iron (Fe) and titanium (Ti) and other trace elements, so it presents the color such as blue, sky blue, light blue. And the bright sky blue is the best. Sapphire’s mineral name is corundum, belonging to corundum mineral. Actually, in the nature, all kinds of gem grade corundum except ruby are called sapphire. Other colors such as blue, light blue, green, yellow, gray, colorless, etc, are referred to as sapphire.The chemical composition of sapphire is AL2O3.

Corundum contains some trace elements (Ti4 +) or metal (Fe2 +), so it is shown in blue. Crystal morphology can be tubular, short columnar, etc. Its refractive index is of 1.76-1.77, double refractive index of 0.008, and the dichroism is strong. Sometimes, it will show special optical effect - star effect. No cleavage, crack development.

The biggest characteristic of sapphire is uneven color, and visible six-party cylinder is arranged in parallel, with different shades of flat ribbon, grain growth, and strong dichroism. Sapphire from different regions in the world, not only has the above common characteristics, but also has its own characteristics because of different producing areas.

Sapphire pendant is the hardest natural mineral, whose basic chemical composition is alumina. In addition to the star effect, only semi-translucent or transparent and colorful corundum can be called as gems. Red corundum containing chromium will be shown in red, so it is called ruby, while blue sapphire (Sapphire) contains trace amounts of titanium and iron. In fact, in addition to red corundum gem, all the other colors of corundum are generally referred to as Sapphire in business. Therefore, sapphire not only refers to the blue corundum gem, and it also has yellow, pink, orange, orange, purple, and so on, like fireworks and sunset,besides a complete blue series. These colorful sapphire are called color Sapphire.