HI-TECH GEMS
Since ancient times, sparkling sapphires have been valued as jewelry stones. In recent times, specialists have found other applications for them. Sapphire is becoming more and more in demand on the international hi-tech market. A number of key positions in this domain are occupied by Ukraine, largely owing to the innovations offered by the Institute of Monocrystals of the National Science Academy.
One of the nominees for the 2003 State Prize of Ukraine for science and engineering is a collective of researchers with the Institute of Monocrystals (Kharkiv), the NSA Institute of Physics (Kyiv), and the NSA Institute of Semiconductor Physics (Kyiv). Their work covers a complete cycle - from research and development of technology for obtaining high-quality sapphires to the manufacture of sapphire products for the optical, electronic, and medical industries, with further access to the global market.
From Bulbs to Sapphire Lamps
The good old filament bulb is doomed to give way to light-emitting diodes. Experts predict that it may happen within the next few years.
The basic LED element is not a tungsten filament in a vacuum glass bulb, but a sapphire mount coated with multi-layer electroluminescent structures. Its main virtue is efficiency. 40W would suffice to adequately light a large apartment - a tremendous economy! There are other advantages, too. One of them is that a LED, unlike the short-lived bulb, lasts years.
“In fact, color LEDs are already used in navigation lights, beacons, landing strip lights on airfields, aircraft control panels,” says Dr Vyacheslav Puzikov, a NSA corresponding member. “White light diodes already exist that could be used to light rooms, but they are too expensive. They are mostly used for special purposes - for example, in pens that can write in the dark. And lamps “for family use” can only be bought in Japan, which is well-known for the propensity for novelty. Apart from apartment lamps, sapphire diodes can be used in other promising areas - projection television and sources of high luminosity.
It is clear that such bright prospects spur global demand for cheap large-sized sapphire lamps. Experts say that the output of such lamps will have to increase several times to satisfy this boom.
The researchers with the NSA Institute of Monocrystals, led by Academician Volodymyr Semynozhenko, developed a technology for growing large-sized crystals that would meet international quality and size requirements and would be economic and thus competitive. The solution found by the Kharkiv researchers meets these requirements. It needs no complex or expensive equipment. Besides, cheap domestic raw materials can be used. Their innovation makes it possible to use sapphire in mass hi-tech production.
The Kharkiv Institute’s experimental industrial facility has launched the serial production of large-sized sapphire optical elements. Last year, more than 4.5 tons of such elements was exported, and under this year’s contracts, the amount is expected to exceed 6 tons. Now the Institute of Monocrystals is Europe’s biggest producer of large sapphire crystals.
Sapphire Bones Fit Perfectly
“As is known, most implants used in medicine are metal,” says Prof. Leonid Litvinov. “However, practitioners believe that sapphire is far preferable for ane living organism. It’s non-toxic, it doesn’t cause changes in the functions of organs, it doesn’t change the characteristics of lipid exchange or protein metabolism. It’s not carcinogenic or mutagenic.” In other words, this crystal is bio-inert and bio-compatible. These important properties make sapphire a perfect substitute for bone tissue.
The Kharkiv scientists’ innovations have promoted Ukraine to world leadership in this field.
“The crystallographic parameters of sapphire happen to be the best convergent with those of osseous tissue which also contains crystals, only biological ones,” explains surgeon Yevhen Ryabokon, the author of the first Ukrainian thesis on maxillofacial sapphire implants. “Crystal is lighter than metal, and it can be shaped precisely to a mould. The friction constant and wear factor of sapphire pairs are close to those of natural joints. We can implant sapphire parts even in three-year-old children - they engraft very well and function normally.”
The Institute of Monocrystals already has a facility for the manufacture of sapphire implants for dental, maxillofacial, orthopedic, spinal, and rhinoseptoplastic surgery. Grateful patients with “sapphire bones” live in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, other Ukrainian cities, and abroad. All-in-all, thanks to the Kharkiv method, more than 50 out of 210 human bones can be replaced with this precious stone.
Scalpel for Healers
The sharper the scalpel, the more successful the surgery. A sharp blade enables the surgeon to apply less force to cut tissues, thus reducing substantially the loss of living cells. This was known long ago by ancient healers, who made their blades of obsidian chips. Then obsidian was taken over by steel. Now sapphire is beginning to take its place.
Sapphire blades are head and shoulders above metal ones. Their cutting edge, which is 400A - 500A “thick”, is commensurate with the thinnest fibrils and so is less traumatic. In medical language, “the high quality of the cut makes the wound more hermetical with anatomic approximation of wound edges”. Legendary Philippine healers claim that their manipulations are practically bloodless, since they possess the skill of separating diseased tissues, minimally damaging the surrounding areas. While disputes over healers continue, the Kharkiv sapphire scalpels have helped surgeons make a few more steps toward the bloodless surgery of the future.
Sapphire blades are no worse than diamond ones, but they are many of times cheaper. They are often used abroad as disposable instruments. A ten-dollar disposable sapphire blade can well be sacrificed for the sake of an aseptic surgery, which costs hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Sapphire surgical instruments are used now mostly in ophthalmology, neurosurgery, cosmetology, ENT and dental surgery. It should be noted that sapphire scalpels are produced only in Ukraine, the USA, and Switzerland, and blue sapphire bellied scalpels are made only in this country.
It has been widely recognized that the so-called “catching-up” strategy is irrational. Ukraine should take the lead in the most advanced branches of science and high technology. This is confirmed very graphically by the high demand enjoyed by the sapphires which are made by the Kharkiv Institute of Monocrystals.
