A medical instrument, including an atomic layer deposition, ALD, coating to indicate the type of the medical instrument, and use of ALD to indicate number of re-uses of a medical instrument.

A technology secures favorable appearance of an SiC member. The SiC member includes: an SiC substrate having a front face and a back face; and a first SiC coat provided on the front face of the SiC substrate. The SiC substrate has first polycrystalline layers and second polycrystalline layers stacked alternately across a plurality of layers as polycrystalline layers having film properties different from each other. At least one of the first polycrystalline layers and at least one of the second polycrystalline layers appear on the front face. The first SiC coat is a polycrystalline layer having the same film property as that of any one of the first polycrystalline layer and the second polycrystalline layer.

A plumbing fixture having a multi-color appearance includes a first portion including a first finish having a first appearance and a second portion including a second portion having a second appearance that differs from the first appearance. The plumbing fixture further includes a transition region between the first portion and the second portion, wherein the appearance of the third region is graduated from the first appearance to the second appearance between a first end of the transition region adjacent the first portion and a second end of the transition region adjacent the second portion. The plumbing fixture has an ombré appearance as a result of the graduated transition between the first portion and the second portion.

Single crystal CVD diamond material comprising a total nitrogen concentration of at least 5 ppm and a neutral single substitutional nitrogen. N.sub.s.sup.0, to total single substitutional nitrogen, N.sub.s, ratio of at least 0.7. Such a diamond is observed to have a relatively low amount of brown colouration despite the relatively high concentration of nitrogen A method of making the single crystal diamond is also disclosed, the method including growing the CVD diamond in process gases comprising 60 to 200 ppm nitrogen, in addition to a carbon-containing gas, and hydrogen, wherein the ratio of carbon atoms in the carbon-containing gas to hydrogen atoms in the hydrogen gas is 0.5 to 1.5%.

Single crystal CVD diamond material comprising a total nitrogen concentration of at least 5 ppm and a neutral single substitutional nitrogen. N.sub.s.sup.0, to total single substitutional nitrogen, N.sub.s, ratio of at least 0.7. Such a diamond is observed to have a relatively low amount of brown colouration despite the relatively high concentration of nitrogen A method of making the single crystal diamond is also disclosed, the method including growing the CVD diamond in process gases comprising 60 to 200 ppm nitrogen, in addition to a carbon-containing gas, and hydrogen, wherein the ratio of carbon atoms in the carbon-containing gas to hydrogen atoms in the hydrogen gas is 0.5 to 1.5%.

We present a novel technology to prevent water absorption into substrates and to prevent the hydrolysis process thereof. To these ends, we disclose very thin-film water-vapor barrier for applications to substrate surfaces and methods for manufacturing the same. A polymeric compound film and silica-like compound film form a bilayer and one or more bilayers form the barrier on the substrate. The thickness of the film layers is kept below the thin film interference thickness to ensure that the one or more transparent bilayers are substantially transparent to the light. The thin film interference thickness may be characterized as the wavelength of light (λ) divided by four (4) times the index of refraction (n) of the film materials.

A method of applying a multi-color finish to a plumbing fixture includes depositing a first coating on the plumbing fixture; selectively applying a masking material in a graduated fashion over at least a portion of the first coating to define a gradient from a first portion of the plumbing fixture that is substantially completely covered by the masking material to a second portion of the plumbing fixture that has substantially no masking material; depositing a second coating over the masking material; and removing the masking material from the plumbing fixture such that the plumbing fixture has a surface finish including a transition region representing a gradual transition between the first coating and the second coating.

The present disclosure provides a diamond formed of a single crystal diamond consisting of carbon and tantalum with unavoidable impurities, and having a tantalum content in a range of 10.sup.18 to 10.sup.21 atoms/cm.sup.3, wherein the diamond has a black appearance.

The present invention relates to a pigment mixture based on at least two components A and B, where component A is a mixture of flake-form and spherical substrates which is covered with one or more inorganic layers and/or organic layers, and component B comprises crystalline or amorphous particles selected from the group of the metal oxides, metal hydroxides, metal oxy-halides, Prussian Blue or mixtures thereof,

and to the use thereof in paints, coatings, printing inks, security printing inks, plastics, ceramic materials, glasses, in cosmetic formulations, as tracer, as filler and for the preparation of pigment preparations and dry preparations.

A method of forming a diamond bulk object includes heating a crystalline material on a support disposed in a volume defined by a chamber, introducing into the volume a reactant gas including a hydrogen-containing component and a carbon-containing component, depositing a plurality of layers of diamond by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to form at least a portion of the diamond bulk object on the support, and forming a predetermined color gradient in the plurality of layers of diamond.