Who does not listen to metal - God did not give him a mind!
- Folk art
Hello %username%.
back in touch. Today I will be very brief, because in six hours I will get up and go.
And today I want to talk about metal. But not about what music is - we can talk about that sometime over a glass of beer, and not on Habré. And not even about metal - but about metals! And I want to tell you about those metals that somehow amazed me in my life with their properties.
Since all the hit parade participants are distinguished by some of their superpowers, there will be no places and no winners. There will be a metal ten! So the serial number doesn't mean anything.
Come on.
1. Mercury
Mercury is the most liquid metal, with a melting point of -39°C. That it is toxic - and even very - and so I won't repeat it.
Since ancient times, they didn’t pray for mercury - still, “liquid silver”! Alchemists believed that it was in mercury that the famous philosopher's stone was hiding somewhere, for example, Jabir ibn Hayyan believed that since mercury is a liquid metal, then it is “absolute”: it is free from any impurities inherent in solid metals. Sulfur is another subject of Haiyan's admiration - the element of fire, it is capable of producing a pure "absolute" flame, and therefore all other metals (and since it was the VIII century - there were not many of them: seven) are formed from mercury and sulfur.
What in the VIII century, what now - if you mix mercury and sulfur, you get black mercury sulfide (and this, by the way, is one of the ways to decontaminate spilled mercury) - but certainly not metal. Haiyan explained this unfortunate failure by the fact that all the stupid ones lacked some kind of “ripener”, which from black nonsense would lead to the production of metal. And, of course, everyone rushed to look for the "maturing" to get the gold. The history of the search for the philosopher's stone is officially declared open.
%username%, you're laughing at the alchemists right now - but they did achieve their goal! In 1947, American physicists obtained the only stable gold isotope, Au-197, from the beta decay of the Hg-197 isotope. From 100 mg of mercury, as much as 35 micrograms of gold were mined - and they are now flaunting in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. So the alchemists were right - you can! Just damn expensive...
By the way, the only alchemist who did not believe in the possibility of obtaining gold from other metals was Abu Alii Hussein ibn Abdullaah ibn al-Khaasan ibn Aliya ibn Sina - and for the dark infidels - just Avicenna.
By the way, another metal, gallium, is very competitive with mercury in appearance. Its melting point is 29 ° C, at school I was shown a spectacular trick: a piece of some kind of metal is placed on my hand ...
.. and here's what happens
By the way, gallium can now be bought on alik to show such a trick. I don't know if it will pass customs.
2. Titanium
Severe titan - this is not mercury snot for you! It is the hardest metal ever! Well, in my childhood and youth, they wrote with titanium on all these glasses in public transport. Because he scratched and painted with fine metal dust.
Everyone knows that titanium is used in aviation due to its hardness and lightness. Let me tell you about some interesting applications.
Being heated, titanium begins to absorb various gases - oxygen, chlorine and even nitrogen. This is used in installations for the purification of inert gases (argon, for example) - it is blown through tubes filled with titanium sponge and heated to 500-600 ° C. By the way, at this temperature, a titanium sponge interacts with water - oxygen is absorbed, hydrogen is given off, but usually hydrogen in inert gases does not bother anyone, unlike water.
White titanium dioxide TiO2 is used in paints (eg titanium white) as well as in the production of paper and plastics. Food additive E171. By the way, in the production of titanium dioxide, its elemental composition is necessarily controlled - but not at all in order to reduce impurities, but to add "whiteness": it is necessary that the coloring elements - iron, chromium, copper, etc. — was smaller.
Titanium carbide, titanium diboride, titanium carbonitride are competitors of tungsten carbide in terms of hardness. The disadvantage is that they are lighter.
Titanium nitride is used to coat tools, church domes and in the manufacture of costume jewelry, as it has a color similar to gold. All these "medical alloys" that look like gold are titanium nitride coating.
By the way, stubborn scientists have recently made an alloy that is harder than titanium! Just to achieve this, I had to mix palladium, silicon, phosphorus, germanium and silver. The thing turned out to be expensive, and therefore the titan won again.
3. Tungsten
Tungsten is also the opposite of mercury: the most refractory metal with a melting point of 3422 °C. It has been known since the 200th century, however, it is not the metal itself that is known, but the mineral wolframite, which contains tungsten. By the way, the name Wolf Rahm in the language of harsh Germans means “wolf cream”: the Germans, who smelted tin, really did not like the admixture of wolframite, which interfered with smelting, transferring tin into slag foam (“devoured tin like a wolf a sheep”). The metal itself was already isolated later, after about XNUMX years.
What is in the photo is not really tungsten, but tungsten carbide, so if you have such a ring on your hand,% username%, then don't worry too much. Tungsten carbide is a heavy and extremely hard compound - and therefore is used in all sorts of parts that are beaten, by the way, it will “win” - this is 90% tungsten carbide. And good people add tungsten carbide as a tip for armor-piercing shells and bullets. But not only him, later I will tell about another metal.
By the way, although tungsten is heavy, despite its higher density compared to traditional and cheaper lead, tungsten protection turns out to be less heavy with equal protective properties or more effective with equal weight. Due to the infusibility and hardness of tungsten, which make it difficult to process, in such cases, more ductile tungsten alloys with the addition of other metals or a suspension of powdered tungsten (or its compounds) in a polymer base are used. It turns out easier, more efficient - but only more expensive. So in case of a fallout, %username%, take your tungsten armor!
By the way, I managed to put a stain on my “eternal ring” with some kind of chemistry - and I don’t even know with what. So "eternal" it is only for ordinary people)))
4. Uranus
The only natural metal that is used as a fuel. Well, nuclear fuel.
When I was still a schoolboy, but I was admitted to the university (I won’t say why!), I was always amused by the reaction of foreign students when they were shown crystals of sodium uranyl acetate under a microscope. Well, there is such a qualitative reaction. When foreigners were told the word "uranil" - they were blown off the floor. Everyone laughed.
I find it funny and sad that now most of our people also believe that uranium is scary, dangerous and terrible. There is a decline in education.
In fact, even in ancient times, natural uranium oxide was used to make yellow dishes. So, near Naples, a fragment of yellow glass was found containing 1% uranium oxide and dating back to 79 AD. e. It does not glow in the dark and does not glow. I was in Zhovti Vody in Ukraine, where uranium concentrate is mined. No one there is not glowing and no fonit. And the answer is simple: natural uranium is weakly radioactive - no more than granites and basalts, as well as heaps and underground. That uranium, which is URANIUS, is an isotope of U-235, which in nature is only 0,7204%. There is so little of it that for nuclear scientists it is necessary to isolate and concentrate this isotope (“enrich”) - the reactor will not work that easily.
By the way, earlier in nature there were more U-235 - it just fell apart over time. And since there was more of it, a nuclear reactor could be made right on the knee. Literally. This is what happened in Gabon at the Oklo deposit about 2 billion years ago: water ran through the ore, water is a natural moderator of neutrons that fly out during the decay of uranium-235 - in total, the neutron energy was just as much as needed to capture the uranium-235 nucleus — and went-went chain reaction. And the uranium burned itself for several hundred years, until it burned out ...
This was discovered much later, in 1972, when a deviation from the normal isotopic composition of uranium was found during the analysis of uranium from Oklo at the uranium enrichment plant in Pierrelat (France). The content of the U-235 isotope was 0,717% instead of the usual 0,720%. Uranium is not a sausage, here underweight is strictly punished: all nuclear facilities are subject to strict control in order to prevent the illegal use of fissile materials for military purposes. That is why scientists began to investigate, found a couple more elements, such as neodymium and ruthenium, and realized that U-235 was stolen before us, it just burned out, like in a reactor. That is, nature invented the nuclear reactor long before us. However, like everything else.
Depleted uranium (this is when the 235th was taken away and given to the nuclear scientists, and U-238 remained) - heavy and solid, somewhat reminiscent of the properties of tungsten, and therefore - it is used in the same way where it is necessary to beat. There is a story about this from the former Yugoslavia: armor-piercing shells with a striker containing uranium were used there. The population had problems, but not at all because of radiation: fine uranium dust got into the lungs, absorbed - and bore fruit: uranium is toxic to the kidneys. That's it - and there is nothing to be afraid of uranyl acetate! True, this is not a decree for the laws of the Russian Federation - and therefore there are eternal problems with the arrival of chemical reagents containing uranium - because there is only one uranium for an official.
And then there is uranium glass: a small addition of uranium gives a beautiful yellow-green fluorescence.
And it's fucking beautiful!
By the way, it is very useful to offer guests apples or a salad, and then turn on a little ultraviolet light and show how beautiful it is. When everyone finishes admiring, casually throw it like this: “Well, yes, of course, this is uranium glass ...” And bite off a piece of an apple from a vase ...
5. Osmium
Well, since we’ve already talked about heavy uranium-tungsten, it’s time to name the heaviest metal in general - it’s osmium. Its density is 22,62 g/cm3!
However, osmium, being the heaviest, does not prevent anything from being also volatile: in air, it gradually oxidizes to OsO4, which is volatile - and by the way, very poisonous. Yes - this is an element of the platinum group, but it oxidizes quite well. The name "osmium" comes from the ancient Greek ὀσμή - "smell" - precisely because of this: the chemical reactions of dissolving the alkaline alloy of osmiridium (the insoluble residue of platinum in aqua regia) in water or acid are accompanied by the release of an unpleasant, persistent smell of OsO4, which irritates the throat, similar to the smell of chlorine or rotten radish. This smell was felt by Smithson Tennant (about him later), who worked with osmiridium - and so he named the metal. And I know that osmium must be in powder and it must be heated in order for the process to go intensively - but in any case, I do not strive to be near this metal for a long time.
By the way, there is also such an isotope Os-187. There is very little of it in nature, and therefore it is isolated from osmium in centrifuges by mass separation - just like uranium. Separation is waiting for 9 months - yes, it is already possible to give birth. Therefore, Os-187 is one of the most expensive metals; it is its content that determines the market price of natural osmium. But it is not the most expensive, I will tell about the most below.
6. Iridium
Since we are talking about the platinum group, it is worth remembering about iridium. Osmium took away the title of the heaviest metal from iridium - but they dispersed in kopecks: the density of iridium is 22,53 g / cm3. Osmium and iridium were even discovered together in 1803 by the English chemist S. Tennant - both were present as impurities in natural platinum delivered from South America. Tennant was the first among several scientists who managed to obtain enough insoluble residue after exposing platinum to aqua regia and identify previously unknown metals in it.
But unlike osmium, iridium is the most, damn it, resistant metal: in the form of an ingot, it does not dissolve in any acids and their mixtures! At all! Even the formidable fluorine takes it only at 400-450 ° C. To still dissolve iridium, you have to fuse it with alkalis - and even preferably in a stream of oxygen.
The mechanical and chemical strength of iridium is used in the Chamber of Weights and Measures - a kilogram standard is made of a platinum-iridium alloy.
At the moment, iridium is not a bank metal, but there are already advances in this: in 2013, iridium was used for the first time in the world in the manufacture of official coins by the National Bank of Rwanda, which issued a coin from pure metal of the 999th test. An iridium coin was issued in denominations of 10 Rwandan francs. And damn - I would like such a coin!
By the way, when I was very young in "Young Technology" I somehow read some fantastic story, when the boy was going to success, he was able to exchange sand for iridium at a rate of 1: 1 with some kind of aliens in the basement. Well, you see, they needed silicon! I can't remember the title or author of the story. Thank you — V. Shibaev. cable from there.
7. GoldYes, everyone saw him
In life, it often happens that there is an actual champion and a formal one. If iridium is the actual champion in chemical resistance, then gold is formal: it is the most electronegative metal, 2,54 on the Pauling scale. But this does not prevent gold from dissolving in mixtures of acids, so, as usual, the laurels went to the richer.
And indeed, at the moment, due to the fact that China and the Russian Federation are moving away from the policy of accumulating gold and foreign exchange reserves in US dollars to the policy of accumulating gold itself, gold is the most expensive bank metal: in terms of price, it has long overtaken platinum - and indeed the entire platinum group. So keep your money in the savings bank in gold, %username%!
Since the alchemical method of extracting gold has shown its high cost, this metal is obtained at refineries. And coins are already made at mints. So, as a person who has been both there and there, I can say: employees of such enterprises, when visiting a zone where there is precious metal, either change clothes - and there is not a single pin or paper clip on their work clothes - the frames at the checkpoint are not at all the same as at airports , it's getting tougher. Or the so-called “naked mode” operates - yes, yes, you understood correctly: the checkpoint for boys and the checkpoint for girls - you will get dressed already inside. If you have a metal implant - a lot of certificates, a lot of permits, each time they individually check that the implant is in the place where it should be.
By the way, what do you think - how are the checkpoints in the banknote yard organized? The papers don't ring!
The answer is here, but think a little for yourselfAfter work, no one, including management, is released until all products are counted. Yes, everything is strict. But no one is against when, in difficult times, wages were given out in products.
8. Lithium
Unlike heavy osmium-iridium, lithium is the lightest metal, its density is only 0,534 g/cm3. This is an alkali metal, but the most inactive of the whole group: it does not explode in water, but interacts calmly, it does not oxidize much in air, and it is not easy to set it on fire: after 100 ° C it is so well covered with oxide that it does not oxidize further. Therefore, lithium is the only alkali metal that is not stored in kerosene - why, if it is quite inert? And this is fortunately - because of its low density, lithium would float in kerosene.
Natural lithium consists of two isotopes: Li-6 and Li-7. Since the atom itself is so small, the extra neutron significantly affects the radius of the orbital and the excitation energy of the electron, and therefore the usual atomic spectrum of these two isotopes is different - therefore, it is possible to determine them even without any mass spectrometers - and this is the only exception in nature! Both isotopes are very important in nuclear power, by the way, Li-6 deuteride is used as thermonuclear powder in thermonuclear weapons - and I won’t say a word more on this subject!
Lithium is also used by psychiatrists as a normometric agent for the treatment and prevention of mania. When I worked as a student at the department, an aunt came to us with blood plasma, in which it was necessary to determine lithium. At some point, I took it and got into the literature (there was no Internet yet) in order to understand why lithium should be determined there at all? And I found out ... From the next visit, I casually asked my aunt, whose blood was it? When she replied that it was hers, I tried harder not to meet her in person.
Well, that's right - lithium and lithium, it is sometimes determined even in water. By the way, in Lviv there is quite a lot of it in the water.
9. Francius
France has a whole set of titles. Well, firstly, francium is the rarest metal. Its entire content is completely radiogenic: it exists as an intermediate decay product of uranium-235 and thorium-232. The total content of francium in the earth's crust is estimated at 340 grams. So the spot in the picture above is not a frontal photo of a black hole, but about 200 francium atoms in a magneto-optical trap. All isotopes of francium are radioactive, with the longest-lived isotope, Fr-000, having a half-life of 223 minutes. Because France is so small.
However, francium has the lowest electronegativity of any element currently known, at 0,7 on the Pauling scale. Accordingly, francium is also the most reactive alkali metal and forms the strongest alkali, francium hydroxide FrOH. And don’t ask, %username%, how it was all determined with an element whose zilch is small, and which every 22,3 minutes becomes even half as much, and the researcher himself glows brighter. That is why all this is interesting and entertaining, but francium is practically not used anywhere.
10 California/>
There is no California in this world at all, but it is produced in two places: Dimitrovgrad in the Russian Federation and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA. To produce one gram of California, plutonium or curium is subjected to prolonged neutron irradiation in a nuclear reactor - from 8 months to 1,5 years. The entire decay line looks like this: Plutonium-Americium-Curium-Berkelium-California. Californium-252 is the end result of the chain - this element cannot be turned into a heavier isotope, since its nucleus, as it were, says "thank you, you're full" responds weakly to the impact of neutrons.
On the way to converting plutonium into californium, 100% of 99,7% of the nuclei decay. Only 0,3% of the nuclei are kept from decay and go through the entire stage to the end. And the product needs to be highlighted! The isolation of the isotope occurs by extraction, extraction chromatography, or as a result of ion exchange. To give it a metallic appearance, a reduction reaction is performed.
To obtain one gram of California-252, 10 kilograms of plutonium-239 are spent.
The annual amount of californium-252 mined is 40-80 micrograms, and according to experts, the world reserve of californium is no more than 8 grams. Therefore, californium, or rather, californium-252, is the most expensive industrial metal in the world, the cost of one gram of it in different years varied from 6,5 to 27 million dollars.
The logical question is: who needs it at all? You can’t make a chain from it around your neck, you can’t give it to your beloved in the form of a ring. The fact is that Cf-252 has a high neutron multiplication factor (above 3). A gram of Cf-252 emits about 3⋅1012 neutrons per second. Yes, it is potentially possible to make an atomic bomb, but uranium and the same plutonium are cheaper, so californium itself is used as a source of neutrons in various studies, including industrial flow neutron activation analyzers on a conveyor belt. By the way, %username%, I personally saw this California in the form of a small ampoule, which was pulled out of a hefty barrel of radiation protection and quickly thrust into the right place of the analyzer.
It is clear that for such money, California simply has to be poison, albeit not so cool, , but neutrons are also nothing. But it's expensive, of course.
Well, everything seems to be left to sleep for about four hours before the road. I hope that it turned out interesting, and I didn’t scribble all this in vain.
I wish you, %username%, to be as hard as titanium, as easy-going as lithium, as unyielding as iridium, and as valuable as californium! Well, more gold in your pocket, of course.
(you can flash this toast at the next holiday - do not thank)
Source: habr.com