B₆O₁₈Sr₆TmV
rare earth oxide · rare earth ceramicB6O18Sr6Tm1V1 is a rare earth oxide suitable as rare earth ceramic. Color: grey-blue. Fired at 1200°C from 4 precursors (SrCO3, B2O3, Tm2O3). Workshop batch: 100g at €37.70. Compressive strength ~100 MPa; estimated 0.90 kg CO₂/kg (+309% vs clay brick). Notable: uv luminescent, visible absorber. Confidence: medium.
- forms at
- 1200 °C · high-fire
- replaces
- clay brick
- CO₂
- 309% higher than clay brick (0.90 vs 0.22 kg CO₂/kg; 4.1× higher)
- energy
- 100% higher than clay brick (6.00 vs 3.00 MJ/kg; 2.0× higher)
- compressive
- 100 MPa
- density
- 4.44 g/cm³
- crystal
- trigonal
- band gap
- 2.19 eV
- cost
- €377.00/kg · €37.70 / 100 g batch
- confidence
- medium (synthesis route)
- potential
- 0.35 · env 0.00 · novel 1.00 · struct 0.20 · lineage 0.50 · supply 0.00
- flags
- uv luminescent: Converts invisible ultraviolet into visible light. Signage panels, low-energy wayfinding tiles, emergency markings that draw their illumination from daylight rather than mains power. visible absorber: A real-colour solar-gain control layer. Where the body takes visible light into itself rather than reflecting it, the material becomes a selective heat collector — useful on thermal-mass walls, absorber panels, and warm-toned cladding.
Architectural potential
A thulium-vanadium strontium-borate ceramic carrying two stacked optical behaviours on the same body — UV-luminescent emission converts invisible ultraviolet to visible light, and the visible-absorber layer takes real colour into the body as heat rather than reflecting it. Against clay brick the embodied CO₂ is four times higher at only 100 MPa, so specification lives entirely at the small-area functional overlay scale. Natural placements are signage panels that draw illumination from daylight, emergency egress tiles that read chartreuse under 365 nm excitation, warm-toned absorber patches on south-facing thermal-mass walls where the colour-to-heat conversion shifts the collection register, and wayfinding inlays in public circulation that shed stored daylight at dusk. The double-flag chemistry is the argument: a single tile that both emits under UV and absorbs in visible is architecturally unusual, opening possibilities for stair-nosing markers that sense daylight during the day and glow briefly into the evening while simultaneously reading warm to the touch. Supply-chain score sits at 0.0 from thulium precursor rarity, batch is 100 g at 300 g workshop maximum, and €37.70 per batch is genuinely expensive. The caveat is double-cost: rare-earth thulium and specialty vanadium both contribute, and specification beyond single-tile accent patches is untested in architectural production.
Material character
A grey-blue body with a cooler, flatter cast than the purple-brown praseodymium siblings — the thulium contribution sits quieter in visible light and the vanadium addition pulls the body toward a muted slate rather than a saturated blue. At 4.443 g/cm³ and 85×85×31 mm the slab reads dense and single-hand-liftable, close to a fired architectural tile in weight register. Surface reads sintered matte with a fine even grain; edges come cold-cut with a clean kerf bloom. Under 365 nm UV the body lifts toward a muted chartreuse emission from inside the face, subtler than the stronger-emitting praseodymium variants and legible only in reduced ambient light.
Recipe
100 g batch · peak 1200 °C| element | precursor | formula | mass | safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | boron oxide (or borax Na2B4O7) | B2O3 | 15.15 g | safe |
| Sr | strontium carbonate | SrCO3 | 64.26 g | safe |
| Tm | thulium oxide | Tm2O3 | 14.0 g | moderate |
| V | vanadium pentoxide | V2O5 | 6.6 g | moderate |
- 1Ramp
- 2Hold
- 3Ramp
- 4Ramp
- 5Hold
- 6Ramp
- 7Ramp
UV-luminescent — emits visible light under 365 nm UV
Visible absorber — saturated color from bandgap in the visible range