Skip to Content
Merck
All Photos(1)

Key Documents

1.02840

Sigma-Aldrich

Calcium fluoride

precipitated pure, Technipur®

Synonym(s):

Calcium difluoride, Fluorite, Fluorspar

Sign Into View Organizational & Contract Pricing


About This Item

Empirical Formula (Hill Notation):
CaF2
CAS Number:
Molecular Weight:
78.07
MDL number:
UNSPSC Code:
12352302
NACRES:
NA.21

Quality Level

pH

4 (20 °C, 100 g/L in H2O, slurry)

bp

2500 °C (lit.)

mp

1418 °C

density

3.18 g/mL at 25 °C (lit.)

SMILES string

F[Ca]F

InChI

1S/Ca.2FH/h;2*1H/q+2;;/p-2

InChI key

WUKWITHWXAAZEY-UHFFFAOYSA-L

Looking for similar products? Visit Product Comparison Guide

General description

Calcium fluoride (CaF2) occurs naturally as the mineral fluorite or fluorspar. It is the world′s main source of fluorine. It is used in the optical industry because of its transparency in both infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths (about 0.15 to 9 μm). Due to its low refractive index (n500 = 1.44), it is considered a promising candidate for antireflective coatings. Chemically, CaF2 is relatively stable; optical components will not be harmed under adverse conditions.

Application

In recent years, calcium fluoride has garnered much interest due to its properties such as stability and lack of hygroscopicity. It can be commonly used in the manufacture of optical and optoelectronic materials such as windows, LEDs, laser diodes, solar cells, vitrines, and lenses because of its excellent optical properties and resistance to abrasion and scratches. CaF2 is also used as an additive to produce high thermal conductivity aluminum nitride (AlN) ceramics because it acts as a sintering aid at high temperatures and removes residual grain-boundary phases. Doped AIN is used as an excellent material for the development of optoelectronic devices due to its high thermal and electrical conductivities.
In addition, CaF2 is commonly used as a laser crystal and it is easy to grow in the form of large, good-quality bulk crystals to develop commercial optics. It is also used in ceramic host laser applications because of its cubic structure. Divalent rare-earth ions (Sm+2) and trivalent rare-earth ions (Er+3, Tm+3, and Yb+3) are doped with CaF2 to develop a single crystal for tunable broadband and high-power diode-pumped laser operations.

Legal Information

Technipur is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Storage Class Code

13 - Non Combustible Solids

WGK

WGK 1

Flash Point(F)

Not applicable

Flash Point(C)

Not applicable


Certificates of Analysis (COA)

Search for Certificates of Analysis (COA) by entering the products Lot/Batch Number. Lot and Batch Numbers can be found on a product’s label following the words ‘Lot’ or ‘Batch’.

Already Own This Product?

Find documentation for the products that you have recently purchased in the Document Library.

Visit the Document Library

High-power diode-pumped Yb3+:CaF2 femtosecond laser
Lucca A
Optics Letters, 29(23), 2767-2769 (2004)
Optical properties of Sm3+-doped CaF2 bismuth borate glasses
Ali AA
Journal of Luminescence, 129(11), 1314-1319 (2009)
Effect of Tb-doped Concentration Variation on the Electrical and Dielectric Properties of CaF2 Nanoparticles
Cui X, et al.
Nanomaterials, 8(7), 532-532 (2018)
Chapter 2 - Group 17 (H, F, Cl, Br, I) Alkaline Earth Compounds
Ropp RC
Encyclopedia of the Alkaline Earth Compounds, By Richard C. Ropp, 25-104 (2013)
Defect characterization of high thermal conductivity CaF2 doped AlN ceramics by Raman spectroscopy
Lee H-K and Kim DK
Modern Physics Letters B, 23(31-32), 3869-3876 (2009)

Our team of scientists has experience in all areas of research including Life Science, Material Science, Chemical Synthesis, Chromatography, Analytical and many others.

Contact Technical Service