Boron blue diamonds – Diamonds are valued for their lustre and sparkle, making them precious commodities. Creating the beautiful diamond jewels that people adore as betrothal or pure indulgence symbols is a complex and lengthy process. Some diamonds are rarer than others. Believe it or not, Boron is the trace element that gives some rare diamonds a blue colour – the story of the Hope diamond is one such beneficiary of Boron’s colour.
Boron in the form of borate-based bioactive glasses effectively treats chronic wounds in patients across all four stages of wound treatment. As it is a synthetic approach, it avoids problems associated with collagen and animal-derived products. The healing potential of boron in hexagonal boron nitride and boric acid is immense.
Country Profile of China Borates – China is a net importer of borates with few natural resources. However, it still dominates in exporting finished products to global markets as the third-largest exporter. China holds only 3% of global borate reserves. China’s most crucial boron minerals are tincal, borosilicate, and ascharite. Liaoning and Qinghai are the main areas with minable borate resources.
Boron fibers are used extensively in military aviation as a tape product to repair cracked aluminium aircraft skins because of their thermal properties and anti-corrosive advantages. It was first developed in the late fifties and used instead of carbon fibers that were unavailable in continuous lengths and glass fibers or with sufficient modulus. Boron fiber was the preferred product for the horizontal tail skins on the F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft and the horizontal and vertical skins and rudder on the F-15 Eagle.
Fluids, Fuel, Lubricants and Additives – Boron has been proven to be an excellent lubricant for engine components. University of Utah researchers found that parts coated with boron had 50% less friction than others. This may result in significant fuel savings and increased engine durability. Boron should become an essential ingredient in fuels and engine technology once its potential benefits are further clarified.
Automotive makers, including Ford, are taking advantage of boron’s high tensile strength to build stronger, safer, and lighter cars. Boron steel is a crucial ingredient in the Ford Fiesta’s pillars and structural elements and its other car brands. Boron steel is steel alloyed with small amounts of boron. It is four times higher than the average high-strength steel.
Podcast – Billion dollar boron. In 2021, borates sales hit billions of dollars. Why? The demand for boron is increasing rapidly in strategic sectors such as aerospace and defense, zero-carbon, and advanced energy solutions, which depend on boron-based technologies to reduce emissions. Recent forecasts predict that boron demand will increase by 30% by the end of the decade.
Fireworks and pyrotechnics are used frequently in festivals and celebrations, as well as in military operations and military training. Barium is the chemical that gives off a green light in fireworks, but it is toxic. This can be resolved by substituting barium nitrate with Boron carbide. Boron carbide ticks all the boxes in pyrotechnics with its long burn times and high luminous intensity. There are a few concerns in terms of toxicity and environmental data to adopting it. Moreover, Boron carbide is cheaper than barium nitrate and is in plentiful supply.
Boron Fuel – While lithium-ion batteries are powering the road ahead for electric vehicles such as the Tesla S and others, several disruptive scientists and entrepreneurs are paving the way for an entirely new form of fuel – Hydrogen Boron fuel. Analysts claim a single gram of Boron could provide enough fuel to allow a vehicle to travel 80,000 kilometres.
Gardeners looking to add boron to their vegetable garden can do so in various ways. This helpful mineral plays a vital role in plant growth and development and can help improve overall yields. Learn how to add boron to the vegetable garden. Understand the benefits that this mineral can provide not only in the soil but also in the transportation and nutritional value boron brings to garden vegetables, and plants for that matter.
Boron Nitride( BNNT) is being considered as nanocarriers for Curcumin. This combination supports lower dosage and targeted release, ensure that the optimum amount of a drug reaches the site of action, bypassing barriers such as acidic pH of the stomach and liver metabolism. Cancer research and therapies may benefit from this combination.
Scientists and mining professionals know boron as a strategic mineral that powers advanced energy and serve multiple industrial, agricultural, and household applications. But there is another Boron, a town called boron in California. Many of the population of Boron work at the U.S. Borax mine nearby, after which the town was renamed.
Bolivia is one of the largest producers of borates globally after Turkey, the USA, Chile, and Argentina. Extraction and production of ulexite is the main activity centered around the south of the country, with both public and private companies involved. Exports are mostly sodium borates and boric acid, with Brazil and China among the largest buyers.
Nutrient density is essential for good nutrition as it contains beneficial vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients, such as boron, that meet our energy needs.
Ceramics – ceramic glazes and enamels – are applied to ceramic ware, sanitary ware, tableware, and tiles. Borates are used extensively in such enamels and ceramic glazes. Borates used include colemanite, ulexite, and several specialty borates, which provide efficient production and protection against the elements to the finished products.
Borates in Paints: Borates are widely used in paints, coatings, and printing inks as buffering agents. They also provide flame retardant, anti-corrosive, and anti-bacteria protective benefits, applied in marine and aviation coatings for example. Boric acid, borax decahydrate, borax, zinc borate, and perborates/metal borates are compounds most used in paints and coatings.
Boron in eyewear and optics has many applications. Borate minerals such as potassium borate, sodium tetraborate, and boric acid are widely used in manufacturing optical materials. Boron has been an essential ingredient for manufacturers of optical materials since 1887 for eyewear given its water-soluble presence, with benefits including durability, resistance to scratching, and suitability for light transmission.
Borate compounds are widely used in chemical processes and recovery – Boron in paper production – by mills all over the globe. Sodium borohydride is used in paper production primarily to bleach paper in the preparation stage. Boron is also used in the form of borax pentahydrate to support causticising. Borate autocausticization is a cost-saving technique that can help paper mills save money on material, recovery, and energy.
Boron in quantum computing is one of the most exciting areas in science today. Currently, silicon-based qubits provide the processing power for these hugely powerful machines. However, Hexagonal Boron Nitride, hBN, is a promising material for quantum technologies. hBN benefits include lower error rates, an increase in the number of qubits per chip, increased stability, better conductivity, and reduced energy loss. They are also more cost-effective.
Billion dollar boron. In 2021, borates sales hit billions of dollars. Why? The demand for boron is increasing rapidly in strategic sectors such as aerospace and defense, zero-carbon, and advanced energy solutions, which depend on boron-based technologies to reduce emissions. Recent forecasts predict that boron demand will increase by 30% by the end of the decade.
Boron Podcast – Brands and businesses in the US personal care sector use Boron Personal Care products and its general health benefits to bring new formulations of personal care products to compete in the $25.5 billion global industry sector.
Lynas Company Profile – Lynas is a leading global supplier of rare earths, crucial for many high-tech and green energy applications with operations in Malaysia and Australia. Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ACN:009 066 648) is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as a public company in Western Australia.
Boron minerals are an important mineral in the Earth’s crust; they come from a variety of geological structures, such as pegmatite and metamorphic rocks. The most common boron minerals that are formed on Earth include Tincal, Tincalconite, Colemanite, Kernite, Ulexite, Pandermite, Boracite, Hydroboraclite, Inderite, Ascharite, Datolite, Sassolite, Meyerhofferite, Inyoite, and Probertite.
Boron is a crucial ingredient of ‘Silly Putty,’ an extraordinarily complex and sophisticated molecular engineering job with multiple benefits from securing objects in space to treating injuries and using it to lift fingerprints as evidence for amateur sleuths.
AML3D and Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) announces a series of collaborative feasibility projects exploring Boron 3D Metal Printing using Boron Nitride Nanotubes (BNNTs) in Wire Additive Manufacturing. The new composite could revolutionize Wire Additive Manufacturing (WAM) by enjoying far-reaching commercial industry implications for applications in 3D metal printing globally.
Lithium and Boron Technology, Inc., previously known as SmartHeat Inc, is a significant producer of boric acid and a manufacturer of lithium carbonate in the PRC. It has a revenue of around $7.57M. The company exclusively sources ore and brine from Dachaidan Lake and the surrounding areas.
The increasing reliance on renewable energy sources has led to many studies and research into boron and photocatalysis for applications ranging from solar energy, pollutant removal, artificial photosynthesis to energy storage and fuel evolution.
Vulcan Energy Resources announced in November that its leading German site had significant lithium reserves with 181 milligrams per litre. Lithium and Boron can be found and extracted from Geothermal Brine. Vulcan plans to market its lithium as “zero carbon.”. Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium business is different from current lithium extraction projects in that it causes no disruptions to communities or the environment.
Boron Personal Care – the US personal care sector uses Boron to bring new formulations of personal care products to compete in the $25.5 billion global industry sector. Multiple boron formulations are created to offer skincare, haircare, and oral care benefits.
Tesla is an American electric vehicle manufacturer and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla manufactures electric cars and battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar panels, solar roof tiles, and other related products and services. With a market capitalization of almost $1 trillion, Tesla is one of the most valuable automobile manufacturers globally. It uses lithium and boron to deliver alternative energy sources and boron to provide a lighter, more muscular frame.
Welding with Boron Steel: Boron is widely used in construction materials as a strengthening agent and anticorrosive agent. When it comes to steel structures, boron has a particular role in strengthening and anti-fracturing steel welds. Boron oxide and boron carbide are the most commonly used compounds in this context.
Argentina is the fifth-largest producer of natural borates. Deposits of borate can be found throughout Argentina, including in the provinces of Neuquén (Gran Chaco), Rio Negro, San Juan, and Mendoza (Cordoba). The first boric acid in Argentina was produced in 1894 at the La Plata mine when sodium tetraborate ore was extracted for the first time. The country became a major producer in 1900.