10 Sep
2016
10 Sep
'16
8:16 a.m.
On 09/10/2016 07:31 AM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:
Transparent aluminum exists. It is called sapphire.
Sapphire is
the crystalline form of aluminum oxide. If you recall, Apple was
thinking of using it for the touch screen face of the iphone.
Pardon my pickiness, but sapphire isn't aluminum, any more than ruby or
corundum is. One might was well refer to it as "oxygen".
Sappire is a combination of oxygen and aluminum. In fact, there's more
oxygen than aluminum in sapphire.
Very thin (micron-thick) layers of metallic aluminum can be transparent,
but that's true of many metals.
--Chuck