Appearance
“Fancy” sapphires are sapphires that are not blue in color. The term “parti sapphire” refers to multi-colored stones that have distinct color zones, but not distinct shades. You may find fancy sapphires in almost any color, including yellow, orange, green, brown, purple, and violet.
Geographical Distribution
Australia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, China (Shandong), Colombia, Ethiopia, and India are countries with notable sapphire deposits. Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United States (Montana), Kenya, Laos, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), and Vietnam. Jammu and Kashmir (Padder, Kishtwar).
Chemical Properties
The gemstone sapphire is a valuable form of corundum, primarily composed of aluminum oxide (α-Al2O3), with traces of iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon.
Types
Parti sapphires
Sapphires that display two or more colors within one stone are known as parti coloured sapphires, also sometimes referred to as bi-color sapphires. Colour zoning or location, color saturation, and color contrast are typically used to determine whether particolored or bicolored sapphires are desirable.
The color of pink sapphires ranges from pale to dark pink, and it gets deeper as the chromium content rises. Their monetary value increases with the depth of their pink hue.
Star sapphire
Red stones are called “star rubies” when they display asterism, a sapphire-like phenomenon that resembles stars. When star sapphires are examined under a single overhead light source, the underlying crystal structure is followed by intersecting needle-like inclusions that give the impression of a six-rayed “star”-shaped pattern. Often included is the mineral rutile, which is mainly made of titanium dioxide.
Color-change sapphire
Color-change sapphire is a unique type of natural sapphire that changes color depending on the light. Sapphires that change color are blue in the outdoors and purple indoors under incandescent lighting, or green to gray-green during the day and pink to reddish-violet during incandescent lighting.
Uses
- Sapphires are utilized in a number of non-ornamental applications, including movement bearings, high-durability windows, infrared optical components, and wristwatch crystals.
- They are also used in very thin electronic wafers, which serve as the insulating substrates for specialized solid-state electronics like integrated circuits and GaN-based blue LEDs.
- September’s birthstone and the 45th anniversary gem is sapphire. After 65 years, a sapphire jubilee takes place.
- Natural sapphires are frequently polished and cut into jewels that are worn in jewelry.
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