A newly made surface coating for steel can make it stronger and more resistant to rust and corrosion, according to its developers. Scientists from Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) were able to create a surface coating for steel that not only repels corrosion but also makes the metal stronger.

Joanna Aizenberg, a core member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and her team developed a new surface coating from nanoporous tungsten oxide, which is respected to be more durable than any anti-fouling material that has been developed before. Also the coating had passed the tests: scratching with stainless steel tweezers, diamond-tipped scribers, screwdrivers, beating it hard, anti-wetting properties.

According to the team, they made that possible by making an ultrathin film of thousands of small tungsten oxide islands to directly coat the steel surface. If one part of one island is destroyed, the damage will not spread to other islands due to their lacking of connection. This helps the coating retain its repelling properties while helping the steel improve its durability.

The coating material had potential to be used in different industrial and commercial fields, such as: non-fouling medical devices and tools, 3-D printers, large scale use on buildings and on marine vessels or vehicles. The beneficial properties of the coating may save millions in production and maintenance coats.
Tungsten, a high melting point reaches to 3410°C making it becoming the hardest melting metal. Also it becomes the strategic metal, because its properties that high hardness, strong ductility, no erosion at room temperature in the air. Tungsten oxide, which comes from the tungsten, following its excellent properties, thus it’s possible that tungsten oxide surface coating makes steel stronger and durable.

Since Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, the iconic smartphone has sold over 700 million units around the world. This best-selling handset sets the standard for smartphone performance and features. However, the iPhone 6S would not be possible without the extraordinary raw materials that line the insides of the case. So what is in the Apple iPhone 6S?

About the iPhone 6S’s screen, it’s much more complex than it may seem. The potassium ions make aluminosilicate glass strength. A layer of indium tin oxide makes it touchscreen capable and small amounts of rare earths enables certain colors on the display.

Lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO₂) with 60% of cobalt is in the iPhone 6S’s battery, also a graphite anode and aluminum casing are being used.

About the electronics, the phone’s processor is mainly made from silicon, metals like cooper, gold, silver and tungsten are used for electrical connections within a iPhone 6S. Besides, the introduction of tantalum makes the electricity flow managed to guarantee.

Tungsten-copper and tungsten-silver carbide both have the properties as same as copper and silver--the good electrical, thermal conductivity. Thus, making them become very effective contact materials in working parts, such as manufacturing knife switch, circuit breakers, spot welding electrodes.

Things someone really cases is the camera, what is the extraordinary raw material used in Apple 6S’s camera? Sapphire glass, which makes it nearly as hard as a diamond, because of the Moh’s hardness reaches to 9.

It is reported that Apple Inc. will open a conference at March 21^st, something new relating with Apple Watch2 will be shared in addition to publishing iPhone SE and the new iPad which are concerned, such as a new generation of upgraded model.



In the designing, Apple Watch 2 won’t be made drastic changes, but to improve the portability of the device through introducing new materials and magnetic strap to attract new buyers. Apple reported to try new materials include tungsten, palladium, titanium and platinum.

In the function, a new health function will be introduced into the second generation model (or a new software upgrade) - when the user is detected unforeseen circumstances, the device will automatically call for help to a doctor.

About the configuration, as the upgraded model, upgrading the hardware configuration is natural essential. It is reported that Apple Watch 2 will have upgrade in the following areas:
1. Introducing A32 processor (ARM Cortex-A32 CPU), A32 is the smallest, lowest power consumption of ARM v8-A designing;
2. Networking, the second generation model may bring 3G/4G networking feature, making it handling data traffic by their own short-term;
3. Battery life, in order to solve the problem that weaker endurance of Apple Watch, Apple Inc is reported to combine with Samsung and LG to develop thinner OLED panels for fitting the larger capacity battery.
4. The camera, a Face-Time camera will be added in the body, making video calls directly on the wrist becoming possible.

Tungsten, as a typical rare metal, an important strategic resource of the state, has the very important application. Tungsten is an important part of contemporary high-tech new material, and it is widely used in fields such as electro-optical materials, special alloys, new features materials and organometallic compounds, because of its properties such as high melting point, hardness and density, good electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, low coefficient of expansion.

Tungsten oxide is one of the mostly studied cathodic coloring electrochromic material. Electrochromic property of WO3 has been made into different electrochromic device and is applied in real life. There are many advantages of electrochromic device, transmittance can change continuously in a wide range and can be adjusted manually.

A B.C. engineering lab has created metal-coated glass that transmits up to 10 per cent more light than conventional glass and opens the door to windows that function as electronics. The most immediate use of the technology is to create windows that can be programmed to absorb or reflect heat, depending on the needs of a building’s occupants, said lead investigator Kenneth Chau, a professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. “What’s interesting about this discovery is that it’s counterintuitive, because we always think of metals as being opaque, so it runs against our expectations,” he said. “I think one of the most important implications of this research is the potential to integrate electronic capabilities into windows and make them smart.”

But weren’t we all expecting glass to get a lot smarter?

“That’s true. When you watch Iron Man movies, they have displays on glass, they do computations on glass. This is a tiny step in that direction,” he said. Films like Iron Man and Star Trek provide scientists with inspiration for scientific progress, he said. “There is a dream that we can make glass smarter. These films give us concepts to strive for; the hard work is uncovering the science to make it happen.”

Glass is a crystalline structure that is fairly transparent, but not completely, you can still see it. Thin layers of metal actually boost the amount of light that goes through. While conventional glass does not conduct electricity, the metal layer creates an object with very different properties and the possibility of adding a variety of advanced technologies to a brilliantly transparent surface. Adding electronic control to windows will allow you to change the amount of light and heat passing through to more effectively use the energy provided by the sun naturally.

Tungsten is a trace element, widely distributed in the form of sodium tungstate. In recent years, sodium tungstate has discovered to be with a strong effect on anti-diabetic, it can treat the blood sugar of type Ⅰand type Ⅱ diabetes animal models to normal level, and even after withdrawal for quite some time, the blood glucose level of the treated animals is still lower than the comparison team, and with less toxicity, bioavailability. Because of the effect of tungstate in diabetic, it is concerned by everyone in recent years, and considered to be a potential hypoglycemic drug, but its hypoglycemic mechanism is not fully understood. Although there are many studies have shown that it plays a role as insulin like: promotes glycogen synthesis, increases glucose oxidation, inhibits gluconeogenesis, but its impact on carbohydrate metabolism study is still rare. This study examined the effects of sodium tungstate on adipocyte glucose consumption and transport rates and GLUT-4 mRNA expression, and to further explore the mechanism of sodium tungstate hypoglycemic.


Remarks:
The vertical coordinate represents: Glucose transport rate
The horizontal coordinate represents: Sodium content of sodium

Sodium tungstate can promote the consumption of adipocyte glucose, increase the transport rate of adipocyte glucose, also sodium tungstate enhanced glucose metabolism in fat cells shows out as a dose-dependent manner has been observed, and when in the concentration of 500, 700u mol/L, the effect tends to a higher level. Because GLUT-4 is the main protein of glucose transport in fat cells, which has an important role in glucose metabolism. In this study, semi-quantitative RT-PCR is used for inspecting the expression of GLUT-4 mRNA in adipose cells, and each concentration of sodium tungstate in experimental group was showed that GLUT-4 mRNA expression was significantly raised. Giroona an her other team members observed that the GLUT-4 content of insulin sensitive tissues in hyperglycemic animal was decreased, but after treated with sodium tungstate, the levels of skeletal muscle cell GLUT-4 and mRNA has been significantly increased STZ diabetic rats. Moreover, GLUT-4 content of cell density microsomes and plasma membrane are increased, which is meaning that stimulate GLUT-4 translocation from the inside to cell membranes, thus speeding up the glucose through the cell membrane into the cell, and finally lower the blood sugar. Recent studies have found that sodium tungstate promote glycogen synthesis non-insulin-receptor-dependent pathway, primarily coming out activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1 / 2). Sodium tungstate up-regulate the expression of GLUT-4, and promote the mechanism of glucose metabolism in fat cells may also be the effect of non-insulin-dependent pathway as insulin receptor, but need further study.

Fujian, China one Chinese company is high-tech manufacturing company which engaged in sapphire crystal growth and its subsidiary products processing. This company last year invested 60 million RMB to introduce 10 sets sapphire growth furnace, and this year formally put into production in batches. It expected to achieve annual output value of 50 million RMB.

Tungsten crucible is an important component in sapphire growth furnace. The quality of tungsten crucible largely affects the quality and application range of sapphire. The following will detail describe crucible tungsten.

Tungsten crucible is one of tungsten products usually using powder metallurgy method to produce. It has a lot of excellent properties, such as high melting point, high boiling point, high strength, corrosion resistance and so on, which are widely used in sapphire growth furnace, quartz glass melting furnace, rare earth smelting furnace, as the core container industry of the furnace. For sapphire single crystal growth, tungsten crucible has a high purity, high density, crack-free, precise size, smooth inner and outer walls and other features is conducive to produce high performance sapphire single crystal. Sapphire has high hardness (Mohs hardness 9), only second to diamond. It has good transparency, high hardness, wear resistance, high temperature resistance properties, good thermal conductivity and electrical insulation and other properties. Currently sapphire as an important new material, which is generally as rosy window materials, LED substrate, laser matrix, optical components, watches and mobile phones’ touch cover and is widely used in science and technology field, military field, electronics industry and other industry. Sapphire has stable chemical and physical property, the applications range of in the industry is gradually expanding. With the growth and development of sapphire industry, tungsten crucible will be developed to a certain extent in the future.

With the rapid development of sapphire glass industry, it is widely applied and industry chain gradually improved. China mainland has cost advantage and it is expected to become the world's tungsten crucible made sapphire Industry Center. At present, China mainland sapphire industry gradually became mature forming a complete industrial chain from the crystal growth furnace equipment, crystal growth to processing. China mainland currently has many excellent sapphire manufacturers and its maturity production technology is not lost on China Taiwan.

China became the dominant sapphire industry center have the following main points:
1.Low electricity cost: Sapphire production energy consumption is very large, accounting for a large proportion of the sapphire cost. To a large extent, the price of electricity will significantly affect the sapphire cost. China has a certain electricity price advantage. What’s more, many manufacturers will select manufacturing address at someplace where it has lower electricity cost, and select the big city for high-tech processing.

2.Sufficient raw material: The main raw material of sapphire crystal is aluminum oxide. China is the world's largest alumina producer. Recently the price of aluminum oxide is steady decline, which is a big advantage for China's sapphire manufacturers. China alumina raw materials are sufficient, not only reduces the cost of production, it may also provide a chance for large-scale sapphire production.

3.Tax rate protection: China Customs sets sapphire as luxury so there are 17%consumption tax and 11% added-value tax of sapphires. So to import sapphire requires higher taxes. And with China's sapphire industrial development and growth, the advantages of import sapphire are reduced.

4.Production equipment advantages: tungsten crucible is an essential component for the sapphire production in sapphire growth furnace which plays a vital role for sapphire production. China is the largest tungsten producer and has mature technology for tungsten crucible production which is a big advantage for sapphire.

5. Market: With the development of economy and technology, China has a large sapphire market.