Element Niobium Research Paper
The Element Niobium
Atomic Number: 41 Atomic Weight: 92.90638
Melting Point: 2750 K (2477°C or 4491°F) Boiling Point: 5017 K (4744°C or 8571°F)
Density: 8.57 grams per cubic centimeter Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Period Number: 5 Group Number: 5 Group Name: none
What's in a name? Named for the Greek mythological figure Niobe.
Say what? Niobium is pronounced as ni-OH-bee-um.
History and Uses:
The story of niobium's discovery is a bit confusing. The first governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop the Younger, discovered a new mineral around 1734. He named the mineral columbite ((Fe, Mn, Mg)(Nb, Ta)2O6) and sent a sample of it to the British Museum in London, England. The columbite sat in the museum's mineral collection for years until it was analyzed by Charles Hatchett in 1801. Hatchett could tell that there was an unknown element in the columbite, but he was not able to isolate it. He named the new element columbium.
The fate of columbium took a drastic turn in 1809 when William Hyde Wollaston, an English chemist and physicist, compared the minerals columbite and …show more content…
tantalite ((Fe, Mn)(Ta, Nb)2O6) and declared that columbium was actually the element tantalum. This confusion arose because tantalum and niobium are similar metals, are always found together and are very difficult to isolate.
Niobium was rediscovered and renamed by Heinrich Rose in 1844 when he produced two new acids, niobic acid and pelopic acid, from samples of columbite and tantalite. These acids are very similar to each other and it took another twenty-two years and a Swiss chemist named Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac to prove that these were two distinct chemicals produced from two different elements. Metallic niobium was finally isolated by the Swedish chemist Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand in 1864. Today, niobium is primarily obtained from the minerals columbite and pyrochlore ((Ca, Na)2Nb2O6(O, OH, F)).
Niobium is used as an alloying agent and for jewelry, but perhaps its most interesting applications are in the field of superconductivity.
Superconductive wire can be made from an alloy of niobium and titanium which can then be used to make superconductive magnets. Other alloys of niobium, such as those with tin and aluminum, are superconductive as well. Pure niobium is itself a superconductor when it is cooled below 9.25 K (-442.75°F). Superconductive niobium cavities are at the heart of a machine built at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. This machine, called an electron accelerator, is used by scientists to study the quark structure of matter. The accelerator's 338 niobium cavities are bathed in liquid helium and accelerateelectrons to nearly the speed of
light.
Estimated Crustal Abundance: 2.0×101 milligrams per kilogram
Estimated Oceanic Abundance: 1×10-5 milligrams per liter
Number of Stable Isotopes: 1 (View all isotope data)
Ionization Energy: 6.759 eV
Oxidation States: +5, +3
|Electron Shell Configuration: | |1s2 |
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| | |2s2 |
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| | |2p6 |
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| | |3s2 |
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| | |3p6 |
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| | |3d10 |
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| | |4s2 |
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| | |4p6 |
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| | |4d4 |
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| | |5s1 |
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The Element Vanadium
Atomic Number: 23
Atomic Weight: 50.9415
Melting Point: 2183 K (1910°C or 3470°F)
Boiling Point: 3680 K (3407°C or 6165°F)
Density: 6.0 grams per cubic centimeter
Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Period Number: 4 Group Number: 5 Group Name: none
What's in a name? Named for the Scandinavian goddess Vanadis.
Say what? Vanadium is pronounced as veh-NAY-di-em.
History and Uses:
Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Rio, a Mexican chemist, in 1801. Rio sent samples of vanadium ore and a letter describing his methods to the Institute de France in Paris, France, for analysis and confirmation. Unfortunately for Rio, his letter was lost in a shipwreck and the Institute only received his samples, which contained a brief note describing how much this new element, which Rio had named erythronium, resembled chromium. Rio withdrew his claim when he received a letter from Paris disputing his discovery. Vanadium was rediscovered by Nils Gabriel Sefstrôm, a Swedish chemist, in 1830 while analyzing samples of iron from a mine in Sweden. Vanadium was isolated by Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, an English chemist, in 1867 by combining vanadium trichloride (VCl3) with hydrogen gas (H2). Today, vanadium is primarily obtained from the minerals vanadinite (Pb5(VO)3Cl) and carnotite (K2(UO2)2VO4·1-3H2O) by heating crushed ore in the presence of carbon and chlorineto produce vanadium trichloride. The vanadium trichloride is then heated with magnesium in an argon atmosphere.
Vanadium is corrosion resistant and is sometimes used to make special tubes and pipes for the chemical industry. Vanadium also does not easily absorb neutrons and has some applications in the nuclear power industry. A thin layer of vanadium is used to bond titanium to steel.
Nearly 80% of the vanadium produced is used to make ferrovanadium or as an additive to steel. Ferrovanadium is a strong, shock resistant and corrosion resistant alloy of iron containing between 1% and 6% vanadium. Ferrovanadium and vanadium-steel alloys are used to make such things as axles, crankshafts and gears for cars, parts of jet engines, springs and cutting tools.
Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) is perhaps vanadium's most useful compound. It is used as a mordant, a material which permanently fixes dyes to fabrics. Vanadium pentoxide is also used as a catalyst in certain chemical reactions and in the manufacture of ceramics. Vanadium pentoxide can also be mixed with gallium to form superconductive magnets.
Estimated Crustal Abundance: 1.20×102 milligrams per kilogram
Estimated Oceanic Abundance: 2.5×10-3 milligrams per liter
Number of Stable Isotopes: 1 (View all isotope data)
Ionization Energy: 6.746 eV
Oxidation States: +5, +4, +3, +2
|Electron Shell Configuration: | |1s2 |
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| | |2s2 |
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| | |2p6 |
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| | |3s2 |
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| | |3p6 |
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| | |3d3 |
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| | |4s2 |
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The Element Plutonium
Atomic Number: 94
Atomic Weight: 244
Melting Point: 913 K (640°C or 1184°F)
Boiling Point: 3501 K (3228°C or 5842°F)
Density: 19.84 grams per cubic centimeter
Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Period Number: 7 Group Number: none Group Name: Actinide
Radioactive and Artificially Produced
What's in a name? Named for the dwarf planet Pluto.
Say what? Plutonium is pronounced as ploo-TOE-ni-em.
History and Uses:
Plutonium was first produced by Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, Edward M. McMillan and Arthur C. Wohl by bombarding an isotope of uranium, uranium-238, with deuterons that had been accelerated in a device called a cyclotron. This created neptunium-238 and two free neutrons. Neptunium-238 has a half-life of 2.1 days and decays into plutonium-238 throughbeta decay. Although they conducted their work at the University of California in 1941, their discovery was not revealed to the rest of the scientific community until 1946 because of wartime security concerns.
Plutonium's most stable isotope, plutonium-244, has a half-life of about 82,000,000 years. It decays into uranium-240 throughalpha decay. Plutonium-244 will also decay through spontaneous fission.
Only two of plutonium's isotopes, plutonium-238 and plutonium-239, have found uses outside of basic research. Plutonium-238 is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators to provide electricity for space probes that venture too far from the sun to use solar power, such as the Cassini and Galileo probes. Plutonium-239 will undergo a fission chain reaction if enough of it is concentrated in one place, so it is used at the heart of modern day nuclear weapons and in some nuclear reactors.
Estimated Crustal Abundance: Not Applicable
Estimated Oceanic Abundance: Not Applicable
Number of Stable Isotopes: 0 (View all isotope data)
Ionization Energy: 6.06 eV
Oxidation States: +6, +5, +4, +3
|Electron Shell Configuration: | |1s2 |
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| | |2s2 |
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| | |2p6 |
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| | |3s2 |
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| | |3p6 |
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| | |3d10 |
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| | |4s2 |
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| | |4p6 |
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| | |4d10 |
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| | |4f14 |
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| | |5s2 |
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| | |5p6 |
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| | |5d10 |
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| | |5f6 |
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| | |6s2 |
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| | |6p6 |
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| | |7s2 |
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Atomic Number: 41 Atomic Weight: 92.90638
Melting Point: 2750 K (2477°C or 4491°F) Boiling Point: 5017 K (4744°C or 8571°F)
Density: 8.57 grams per cubic centimeter Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Period Number: 5 Group Number: 5 Group Name: none
What's in a name? Named for the Greek mythological figure Niobe.
Say what? Niobium is pronounced as ni-OH-bee-um.
History and Uses:
The story of niobium's discovery is a bit confusing. The first governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop the Younger, discovered a new mineral around 1734. He named the mineral columbite ((Fe, Mn, Mg)(Nb, Ta)2O6) and sent a sample of it to the British Museum in London, England. The columbite sat in the museum's mineral collection for years until it was analyzed by Charles Hatchett in 1801. Hatchett could tell that there was an unknown element in the columbite, but he was not able to isolate it. He named the new element columbium.
The fate of columbium took a drastic turn in 1809 when William Hyde Wollaston, an English chemist and physicist, compared the minerals columbite and …show more content…
tantalite ((Fe, Mn)(Ta, Nb)2O6) and declared that columbium was actually the element tantalum. This confusion arose because tantalum and niobium are similar metals, are always found together and are very difficult to isolate.
Niobium was rediscovered and renamed by Heinrich Rose in 1844 when he produced two new acids, niobic acid and pelopic acid, from samples of columbite and tantalite. These acids are very similar to each other and it took another twenty-two years and a Swiss chemist named Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac to prove that these were two distinct chemicals produced from two different elements. Metallic niobium was finally isolated by the Swedish chemist Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand in 1864. Today, niobium is primarily obtained from the minerals columbite and pyrochlore ((Ca, Na)2Nb2O6(O, OH, F)).
Niobium is used as an alloying agent and for jewelry, but perhaps its most interesting applications are in the field of superconductivity.
Superconductive wire can be made from an alloy of niobium and titanium which can then be used to make superconductive magnets. Other alloys of niobium, such as those with tin and aluminum, are superconductive as well. Pure niobium is itself a superconductor when it is cooled below 9.25 K (-442.75°F). Superconductive niobium cavities are at the heart of a machine built at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. This machine, called an electron accelerator, is used by scientists to study the quark structure of matter. The accelerator's 338 niobium cavities are bathed in liquid helium and accelerateelectrons to nearly the speed of
light.
Estimated Crustal Abundance: 2.0×101 milligrams per kilogram
Estimated Oceanic Abundance: 1×10-5 milligrams per liter
Number of Stable Isotopes: 1 (View all isotope data)
Ionization Energy: 6.759 eV
Oxidation States: +5, +3
|Electron Shell Configuration: | |1s2 |
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| | |2s2 |
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| | |2p6 |
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| | |3s2 |
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| | |3p6 |
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| | |3d10 |
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| | |4s2 |
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| | |4p6 |
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| | |4d4 |
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| | |5s1 |
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The Element Vanadium
Atomic Number: 23
Atomic Weight: 50.9415
Melting Point: 2183 K (1910°C or 3470°F)
Boiling Point: 3680 K (3407°C or 6165°F)
Density: 6.0 grams per cubic centimeter
Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Period Number: 4 Group Number: 5 Group Name: none
What's in a name? Named for the Scandinavian goddess Vanadis.
Say what? Vanadium is pronounced as veh-NAY-di-em.
History and Uses:
Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Rio, a Mexican chemist, in 1801. Rio sent samples of vanadium ore and a letter describing his methods to the Institute de France in Paris, France, for analysis and confirmation. Unfortunately for Rio, his letter was lost in a shipwreck and the Institute only received his samples, which contained a brief note describing how much this new element, which Rio had named erythronium, resembled chromium. Rio withdrew his claim when he received a letter from Paris disputing his discovery. Vanadium was rediscovered by Nils Gabriel Sefstrôm, a Swedish chemist, in 1830 while analyzing samples of iron from a mine in Sweden. Vanadium was isolated by Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, an English chemist, in 1867 by combining vanadium trichloride (VCl3) with hydrogen gas (H2). Today, vanadium is primarily obtained from the minerals vanadinite (Pb5(VO)3Cl) and carnotite (K2(UO2)2VO4·1-3H2O) by heating crushed ore in the presence of carbon and chlorineto produce vanadium trichloride. The vanadium trichloride is then heated with magnesium in an argon atmosphere.
Vanadium is corrosion resistant and is sometimes used to make special tubes and pipes for the chemical industry. Vanadium also does not easily absorb neutrons and has some applications in the nuclear power industry. A thin layer of vanadium is used to bond titanium to steel.
Nearly 80% of the vanadium produced is used to make ferrovanadium or as an additive to steel. Ferrovanadium is a strong, shock resistant and corrosion resistant alloy of iron containing between 1% and 6% vanadium. Ferrovanadium and vanadium-steel alloys are used to make such things as axles, crankshafts and gears for cars, parts of jet engines, springs and cutting tools.
Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) is perhaps vanadium's most useful compound. It is used as a mordant, a material which permanently fixes dyes to fabrics. Vanadium pentoxide is also used as a catalyst in certain chemical reactions and in the manufacture of ceramics. Vanadium pentoxide can also be mixed with gallium to form superconductive magnets.
Estimated Crustal Abundance: 1.20×102 milligrams per kilogram
Estimated Oceanic Abundance: 2.5×10-3 milligrams per liter
Number of Stable Isotopes: 1 (View all isotope data)
Ionization Energy: 6.746 eV
Oxidation States: +5, +4, +3, +2
|Electron Shell Configuration: | |1s2 |
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| | |2s2 |
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| | |2p6 |
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| | |3s2 |
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| | |3p6 |
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| | |3d3 |
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| | |4s2 |
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The Element Plutonium
Atomic Number: 94
Atomic Weight: 244
Melting Point: 913 K (640°C or 1184°F)
Boiling Point: 3501 K (3228°C or 5842°F)
Density: 19.84 grams per cubic centimeter
Phase at Room Temperature: Solid
Element Classification: Metal
Period Number: 7 Group Number: none Group Name: Actinide
Radioactive and Artificially Produced
What's in a name? Named for the dwarf planet Pluto.
Say what? Plutonium is pronounced as ploo-TOE-ni-em.
History and Uses:
Plutonium was first produced by Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, Edward M. McMillan and Arthur C. Wohl by bombarding an isotope of uranium, uranium-238, with deuterons that had been accelerated in a device called a cyclotron. This created neptunium-238 and two free neutrons. Neptunium-238 has a half-life of 2.1 days and decays into plutonium-238 throughbeta decay. Although they conducted their work at the University of California in 1941, their discovery was not revealed to the rest of the scientific community until 1946 because of wartime security concerns.
Plutonium's most stable isotope, plutonium-244, has a half-life of about 82,000,000 years. It decays into uranium-240 throughalpha decay. Plutonium-244 will also decay through spontaneous fission.
Only two of plutonium's isotopes, plutonium-238 and plutonium-239, have found uses outside of basic research. Plutonium-238 is used in radioisotope thermoelectric generators to provide electricity for space probes that venture too far from the sun to use solar power, such as the Cassini and Galileo probes. Plutonium-239 will undergo a fission chain reaction if enough of it is concentrated in one place, so it is used at the heart of modern day nuclear weapons and in some nuclear reactors.
Estimated Crustal Abundance: Not Applicable
Estimated Oceanic Abundance: Not Applicable
Number of Stable Isotopes: 0 (View all isotope data)
Ionization Energy: 6.06 eV
Oxidation States: +6, +5, +4, +3
|Electron Shell Configuration: | |1s2 |
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| | |2s2 |
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| | |2p6 |
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| | |3s2 |
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| | |3p6 |
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| | |3d10 |
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| | |4s2 |
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| | |4p6 |
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| | |4d10 |
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| | |4f14 |
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| | |5s2 |
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| | |5p6 |
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| | |5d10 |
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| | |5f6 |
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| | |6s2 |
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| | |6p6 |
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| | |7s2 |
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