Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tantalum |
TantalumNoun1. A hard gray lustrous metallic element that is highly corrosion-resistant; occurs in niobite and fergusonite and tantalite. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Etymology: Tantalum \Tan"ta*lum\, noun. [New Latin expression. So named on account of the perplexity and difficulty encounterd by its discoverer (Ekeberg) in isolating it. See Tantalus.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Mining | A rather brittle, lustrous, hard, heavy, gray metallic element. Symbol, Ta. Occurs principally in the mineral columbite-tantalite, (Fe,Mn)(Nb,Ta) 2 O6 . Widely used to fabricate chemical process equipment, nuclear reactors, and aircraft and missile parts. Used to make electrolytic capacitors, vacuum furnace parts, and surgical appliances. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
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| Name, Symbol, Number | Tantalum, Ta, 73 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chemical series | Transition metals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Group, Period, Block | 5 (VB), 6 , d | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Density, Hardness | 16650 kg/m3, 6.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appearance | gray blue | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Atomic Properties | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Atomic weight | 180.9479 amu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Atomic radius (calc.) | 145 (200) pm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Covalent radius | 138 pm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| van der Waals radius | no data | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electron configuration | [Xe]44f14 5d3 6s2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| e- 's per energy level | 2, 8, 18, 32, 11, 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oxidation state (Oxide) | 5 (mildly acidic) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crystal structure | Cubic body centered | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Physical Properties | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| State of matter | solid | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Melting point | 3290 K (5463 °F) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boiling point | 5731 K (9856 °F) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Molar volume | 10.85 ×1010-3 m3/mol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Heat of vaporization | 743 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Heat of fusion | 31.6 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vapor pressure | 0.776 Pa at 3269 K | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Speed of sound | 3400 m/s at 293.15 K | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electronegativity | 1.5 (Pauling scale) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Specific heat capacity | 140 J/(kg*K) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrical conductivity | 7.61 106/m ohm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thermal conductivity | 57.5 W/(m*K) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st ionization potential | 761 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd ionization potential | 1500 kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most Stable/Notable Isotopes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| SI units & STP are used except where noted. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tantalum is also used to produce a variety of alloys that have high melting points, are strong and have good ductility. Alloyed with other metals, it is also used in making carbide tools for metalworking equipment and in the production of superalloys for jet engine components, chemical process equipment, nuclear reactors, and missile parts. It is ductile and can be drawn into fine wire, which is used as a filament for evaporating metals such as aluminum.
Because it is totally immune to the action of body liquids and is nonirritating it is widely used in making surgical appliances. Tantalum oxide is to make special high index of refraction glass for camera lenses. The metal is also used to make vacuum furnace parts.
Its name is derived from the character Tantalus, father of Niobe in Greek mythology, who was punished after death by being condemned to stand knee-deep in water with perfect fruit growing above his head, both of which eternally tantalized him - if he bent to drink the water, it drained below the level he could reach, and if he reached for the fruit, the branches moved out of his grasp. This was considered similar to tantalum's general non-reactivity - it sits among reagents and is unaffected by them.
Tantalum ores are mined in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, Portugal, and Thailand.
Tantalite is largely found mixed with columbite in an ore called coltan, about whose sources ethical questions have been raised (see the article).
Several complicated steps are involved in the separation of tantalum from niobium. Commercially production of this element can follow one of several different methods which includes; electrolysis of molten potassium fluorotantalate, reduction of potassium fluorotantalate with sodium, or by reacting tantalum carbide with tantalum oxide. Tantalum is also a byproduct from tin extraction.
Applications
The major use for tantalum, as tantalum metal powder, is in the production of electronic components, mainly tantalum capacitors. Major end uses for tantalum capacitors include portable telephones, pagers, personal computers, and automotive electronics. History
Tantalum (Greek Tantalos, mythological character) was discovered in Sweden in 1802 by Anders Ekeberg and isolated in 1820 by Jons Berzelius. Many contemporary chemists believed niobium and tantalum were the same elements until 1844 and later 1866 when researchers showed that niobic and tantalic acids were different compounds. Early investigators were only able to isolate impure metal and the first relatively pure ductile metal was produced by Werner von Bolton in 1903. Wires made with tantalum metal were used for light bulbs until tungsten replaced it. Occurrence
Tantalum occurs principally in the mineral tantalite [(Fe, Mn) Ta2O6] and euxenite (other minerals: samarskite, and fergusonite). Compounds
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have made a tantalum carbide graphite composite material that is one of the hardest materials made.
Isotopes
Natural tantalum consists of two isotopes. Ta-181 is a stable isotope, and Ta-180 is a radioactive isotope that quickly transforms into a nuclear isomer with a half life of over a 1015 years (1 with 15 zeros).
Precautions
Tantalum containing compounds are rarely encountered, and the metal does not normally cause problems in the laboratory, but it should still be regarded as highly toxic. There is some evidence that tantalum compounds can cause tumors, and its metal dust is a fire and explosion hazard.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tantalum."
Synonym: TantalumSynonym: atomic number 73 (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Tantalum |
| English words defined with "tantalum": columbite ♦ fergusonite ♦ niobite ♦ Tantalic, tantalite. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "tantalum": beryllides ♦ carbide tool ♦ ferrous metals ♦ refractory metal. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Tantalum" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Dutch (tantalum). |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Ethiopia | Gold, marble, limestone, and small amounts of tantalum are mined in Ethiopia. (references) |
Kazakhstan | Kazakhstan is also a large producer of beryllium, tantalum, barite, uranium, cadmium, and arsenic. (references) | |
Bolivia | There are several U.S. mining operators in Bolivia closely related to gold, silver and tantalum mines. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Tantalum" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Tantalum" is used about 8 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 8 | 124,375 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "tantalum": tantalum-oxide. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
tantalum | 110 |
tantalum capacitor | 60 |
capacitor chip electrolytic solid tantalum | 8 |
tantalum wet | 7 |
tantalum tubing | 6 |
fabricators tantalum | 6 |
sheet tantalum | 6 |
find hard online source tantalum tantalum | 5 |
tantalum price | 5 |
capacitor capacitoronline tantalum | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "tantalum"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | tantal. (various references) | |
Arabic | التنتالوم عنصر فلزي. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | тантал. (various references) | |
Chinese | '. (various references) | |
Danish | tantal. (various references) | |
Dutch | tantalum, tantalium, tantaal. (various references) | |
Finnish | tantaali. (various references) | |
French | tantale (tantalus). (various references) | |
German | Tantal, Taltal. (various references) | |
Greek | ταντάλιο. (various references) | |
Hungarian | tantál. (various references) | |
Italian | tantalio. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | タングステン鋼 (passenger on a motorcycle, stewed tongue, tandem, tandem bicycle sprint, Tandoori chicken, tangent, Tanzania, tender, tungsten steel). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | タンタル . (various references) | |
Pig Latin | antalumtay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | tântalo (tantalus). (various references) | |
Russian | тантал (tantalus). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | tantal (tantalus). (various references) | |
Spanish | tantalo, tántalo. (various references) | |
Swedish | tantal. (various references) | |
Turkish | tantal (tantalus). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "tantalum": tantalums. (additional references) | |
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"Tantalum" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dentalium, Santalum, Tanabu, Tantallon, tantulum. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "tantalum" (pronounced ta"ntulum) |
| 4 | -u l u m | curriculum, diverticulum, pendulum. |
| 3 | -l u m | alum, antebellum, asylum, bedlam, column, emblem, exemplum, flagellum, fullam, golem, hoodlum, pablum, phylum, problem, slalom, solemn, Solum. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-l-m-n-t-t-u" | |
-2 letters: alumna, mantua, manual, mutant. | |
-3 letters: alant, atman, lauan, manat, manta, natal, tamal, taunt, ulama. | |
-4 letters: alan, alma, alum, anal, anta, atma, aunt, lama, luna, lunt, malt, mana, matt, maul, maun, maut, mutt, tala, taut, tuna, ulan, ulna. | |
-5 letters: aal, ala, alt, ama, amu, ana, ant, att, lam, lat, lum, man, mat, mun, mut, nam, nut, tam, tan, tat, tau, tun, tut, uta. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-l-m-n-t-t-u" | |
+1 letter: matutinal, tantalums. | |
+2 letters: mutational. | |
+3 letters: antitumoral, matriculant, matutinally. | |
+4 letters: adjustmental, matriculants, maturational, mutationally, transmutable, ultramontane. | |
+5 letters: antepenultima, antiritualism, computational, maladjustment, matriculating, matriculation, multinational, mutualization, outmanipulate, permutational, ultramarathon, ultramilitant, ultramontanes, ultraromantic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 61 6E 74 61 6C 75 6D |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)- .- -. - .- .-.. ..- -- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01100001 01101110 01110100 01100001 01101100 01110101 01101101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T a n t a l u m |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 0061 006E 0074 0061 006C 0075 006D |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5467808667788779 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
