This blog, being written for the International Year of Chemistry, taking one element each week has finally arrived at week 52 and element 52 Tellurium.
Although I spent 4 years studying Chemistry and many more working in the field, when I started this blog last year I realised that I had never heard of the 52nd element - Tellurium . How could that have happened I wondered.
During the year I realised that there were other elements with which I was not familiar. I learned a little more about some of them during the year.
I also came across other chemists who had had the same experience, one had even traveled the world to try to find out about the many rare and not generally studied elements.
So what of Tellurium? It appears in the same group as oxygen, sulphur and selenium and is a non metal, but Tellurium has some metal characteristics and is classified as a semi metal.
Tellurium is occasionally found as a free element but is usually found combined with Gold.
Tellurium and all its compounds are highly toxic.
In spite of its rarity and toxicity, it does have some uses in semiconductors and as alloys with other metals.
No comments:
Post a Comment