Halotungstate is a kind of tungstate which is mainly composed of oxyhalide, it is a new type of visible light response photocatalyst.

Barium tungstate (BaWO₄) is one of the divalent metal tungstate, which is an important photoelectric functional material. Barium tungstate crystal is a promising Raman laser crystal due to its stimulated Raman scattering. Barium tungstate crystal can be used in all solid state lasers, and it is possible to design it to emit radiation in special spectral region. Barium tungstate crystal has important application value in many fields, such as photoelectricity, medicine, spectroscopy, because of its special characteristics of photoluminescence, thermoluminescence and stimulated Raman scattering.

Tungstate is an important inorganic functional material, which has broad application prospects and development potential. It can be used as scintillation crystal, luminescent matrix material, photoluminescent material, gas sensitive material, catalyst, etc. Tungstate is a typical self activating luminescent material. Its luminescent source is WO₄^2- complex ion. Under the excitation of X-ray, ultraviolet light and cathode ray, they can emit high-efficiency fluorescence. According to the different structure, tungstate can be divided into two types: scheelite type and wolframite type. In tungstate, calcium tungstate, lead tungstate, zinc tungstate, cadmium tungstate and barium tungstate are important inorganic materials.

Thermal expansion and cold shrinkage of materials is a common phenomenon in nature, but some materials are contrary to this. The coefficient of thermal expansion is negative, that is, the volume decreases with the increase of temperature, which is called negative thermal expansion material (NTE) or thermal shrinkage material. ZrW₂O₈ is a recently discovered material with large isotropic negative thermal expansion in a wide temperature range (0.3k to 1050k). The simple cubic ZrW₂O₈ was first synthesized in 1959 and found to have NTE effect. At that time, it was known that its crystal was cubic structure, but the atomic position was not determined, and its unique NTE performance did not attract attention. Until 1996, the a w sight research group of Oregon State University reported the crystal structure type of the material in science, and the research on ZrW₂O₈ started. It's the beginning of attention.