Submit your questions for Ben in the comments section for a Q and A session next week.
Heating zinc oxide with a blow torch causes it to turn from a white powder into a golden yellow. The process reverses when the substance cools back down to room temperature. The heat drives out some oxygen from the ZnO lattice, cause some locations to have a Zinc metal ion. This disruption in the lattice is able to absorb more blue and violet light, causing the overall substance to look yellow.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that you'd explain a little bit about how monocrystalline materials are made, what they're good for, and if anything like that can be fabricated in a home setting. (The home setting being on the order of your home lab-- well equipped, but not a manufacturing facility.)
I've seen monocrystalline steel, quartz, and silicon mentioned but if there's other stuff out there, that would be neat to hear about as well.
Thanks!
Evan