Multiple Applications of Silver

Medical uses of silver

Silver is used in many medical applications due to its antibacterial properties. Most medical devices, such as bandages, wound cleansers, catheters, pacemakers, valves and feeding tubes, that comes into contact with the body contain silver. The hospital also uses silver in air ducts to prevent certain conditions, such as Legionnaires Disease.

Silver for textiles

The thermal and biological properties of silver make it an ideal choice for the commercial textile industry. Silver is used in the anti-microbial properties of high-end sportswear to inhibit the growth of bacteria that can cause odors. Traditionally, silver and gold threads have been woven into clothing.

silver-for-textiles

Silver for food and water

Silver will play an important role in the food industry in the next decade. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the addition of silver to bottled water to help kill bacteria, which opened the door for major municipalities to use white water for clean water at local communities, cities and state levels. Silver tip cutting tools are used for meat processing. It is also used in the processing of milk, cheese making and baking.

Silver superconductor

Another important use of silver is as a superconductor, mainly for large industrial and military electric motors. For a while, silver was used as a strategic reserve for military applications.

Other applications of silver

In addition to the above aspects, silver has many other uses. Silver is used as a wood preservative. Silver sputtering targets and silver evaporating materials are used for vacuum coating. The silver coating plays a key role in the solar power industry. Solar cells coated with silver absorb light and convert it into electricity.

From the perspective of industrial applications, the future of silver is indeed very obvious. Many industrial applications will continue to use silver, and many new applications for silver will continue to grow at a significant rate.

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Molybdenum Application for Metallurgy

Molybdenum, a silvery-grey metal, does not seem to be as popular as tit anium, aluminum, and platinum. But it is actually a very widely used metal in our life. Today, we will introduce the application of molybdenum in metallurgy.

Steel Metallurgy

The main use of molybdenum for metallurgy is to produce various types of steel and alloys. The addition of molybdenum (mainly in the form of ferromolybdenum, molybdenum oxide, and calcium molybdate) to a range of steels such as structural steel, spring steel, bearing steel, tool steel, stainless steel, and magnetic steel can significantly improve the properties of steel.

Functions

Molybdenum improves the hardenability, toughness and heat strength of steel and prevents temper brittleness. It also improves the corrosion resistance of steel to certain media so that it does not pit. In addition, adding molybdenum into the cast iron enhances the strength and wear resistance of the cast iron.

Nonferrous Metallurgy

In non-ferrous metal alloys, molybdenum can be alloyed with metals such as nickel, cobalt, ruthenium, aluminum, and titanium. These molybdenum alloys are used in the electronics, electrical industry, and machinery industries to make filament and tube parts for light bulbs; they can also be used to make parts such as electromagnetic contacts, gas engine blades, valve protection, and electric furnace resistance.

Functions

Molybdenum can improve the heat resistance and corrosion resistance of non-ferrous alloys and is an important element of nonferrous metallurgy.

Metal Processing

Molybdenum and its alloys can be used in a variety of molds, cores, perforated bars, tool holders and chill plates for metalworking.

Functions

Tools made of molybdenum can improve the processing speed and feed rate of metal processing, reduce the wear and deformation of metal parts, and thus extend the service life of the workpiece. These tools can also be used to machine large-sized parts and improve the accuracy of the workpiece.

Resistance welding electrodes made of molybdenum can be used for electronic brazing and welding of copper, brass and other materials with high thermal conductivity.

The molybdenum tip has a long service life and does not contaminate the workpiece, so it is suitable for processing electronic products.

Molybdenum can be used to make test dies for steel samples, which is very durable.

In addition, some metals require high temperature treatment in hydrogen, inert gas or vacuum, and molybdenum boats are ideal containers for holding such metals.

Molybdenum Boat
Molybdenum Boat

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Working Mechanism of Pulsed Laser Deposition

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique where a high-power pulsed laser beam is focused inside a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited.  Although the equipment of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system is simple, its working mechanism is related to many complicated physical phenomena. It includes all physical interactions between the laser and the substance when the high-energy pulsed radiation strikes the solid sputtering target, the formation of plasma plumes and the transfer of the molten material through the plasma plume to the surface of the heated substrate. Therefore, PLD can generally be divided into the following three stages:

Interaction between laser radiation and the sputtering target

In this stage, the laser beam is focused on the surface of the target materials. When sufficient high energy flux and short pulse width are achieved, all elements of the target surface are rapidly heated to the evaporation temperature. At this point, the material in the target will be sputtered from the target. The instantaneous melting rate of the target is highly dependent on the flow of laser light onto the target. The melting mechanism involves many complex physical phenomena such as collisions, heat, excitation with electrons, delamination, and fluid mechanics.

Dynamics of molten matter

In the second stage, according to the law of aerodynamics, the sputtered particles have a tendency to move toward the substrate. The space thickness varies with the function cosn θ, and n>>1. The area of the laser spot and the temperature of the plasma have an important influence on the uniformity of the deposited film. The distance between the target and the substrate is another factor that affects the angular extent of the molten material. It has also been found that placing a baffle close to the substrate narrows the angular extent.

Deposition of molten material on the substrate

The third stage is the key to determining the quality of the film. The high-energy nuclides emitted hit the surface of the substrate and may cause various damages to the substrate. The high energy nuclide sputters some of the atoms on the surface, and a collision zone is established between the incident stream and the sputtered atoms. The film is formed immediately after the formation of this thermal energy zone (collision zone), which is the best place to condense particles. As long as the condensation rate is higher than the release rate of the sputtered particles, the heat balance condition can be quickly reached, and the film can be formed on the surface of the substrate due to the weakened flow of the molten particles.

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Holmium Oxide Introduction (Properties & Applications)

Overview

Holmium oxide is a chemical compound of rare-earth element holmium and oxygen with the formula Ho2O3. Together with dysprosium oxide, it is considered one of the most paramagnetic substances known. Holmium oxide is one of the constituents of erbium oxide minerals. In the natural state, holmium oxide often coexists with trivalent oxides of lanthanides, and we need special methods to separate them. Holmium oxide can be used to prepare a glass of a particular color. The visible absorption spectrum of Ho2O3-containing glasses and solutions has a series of sharp peaks and is therefore traditionally used as a standard for spectroscopic calibration.

Properties

Appearance  Light yellow or yellow powder, belonging to the equiaxed crystal yttria type structure
Density (g/mL, 25 ° C)  8.16
Melting point (° C)  2415
Boiling point (° C, atmospheric pressure)  3900
Solubility  insoluble in water, soluble in acid
Chemical reaction  Ho2O3+ 6 NH4Cl → 2 HoCl3+ 6 NH3+ 3 H2O

Applications

It is used to manufacture new light source xenon lamps, and can also be used as an additive for yttrium iron obtained from yttrium aluminum garnet and to prepare metal holmium. Holmium oxide can be used as a yellow and red colorant for Soviet diamonds and glass. Glass containing holmium oxide and holmium oxide solution (often perchloric acid solution) have sharp absorption peaks in the spectrum of 200-900 nm, and thus can be used as a standard for spectrometer calibration and have been commercialized. Like other rare earth elements, cerium oxide is also used as a special catalyst, phosphor, laser and coating material (sputtering targets & evaporation materials).

Holmium Oxide Sputtering Target, Ho2O3

Holmium oxide sputtering targets

Holmium oxide sputtering targets with the highest quality can be used in semiconductor, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) applications. Stanford Advanced Materials (SAM) Sputtering Target Manufacturer offers target bonding service, reclaim service and customized service, which can help you make full use of the coating materials.

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