Even though hafnium was only founded about 100 years ago, it has become a very important metal for numerous industries. Hafnium is often found in electric equipment, light bulbs, and ceramic. It’s also used quite a bit in the nuclear power industry. Nonetheless, the average person probably doesn’t know a whole lot about hafnium. Check… Read more »
has one of the most interesting back stories of all the elements that have ever been discovered. Way back in the early 1730s, a scientist named John Winthrop found an ore in Massachusetts of all places and sent it over to England to be examined further. However, it sat untouched for the most part in… Read more »
If you’ve ever pedaled a bicycle or used a knife to cut up something in the kitchen, you may have benefitted from vanadium. Vanadium is an element that’s often used to create alloys that are both strong and durable. You’ll find traces of vanadium in things like bicycle parts and knives. It’s also commonly used… Read more »
Tantalum has one of the highest melting points of all the elements on Earth. Its melting point sits at approximately 5,462 degrees Fahrenheit, which puts it behind only tungsten and rhenium as far as melting points are concerned. Thanks to its high melting point, it’s often used in everything from capacitors and vacuum furnaces to… Read more »
Industrial metals have just about always played an important role in the well-being of the global economy. Nevertheless, these days it appears as though industrial metals are going to play even more of a role than usual in spite of the global trade wars that are on the brink of breaking out. In the coming… Read more »
Vanadium may not be a well-known metal, but its characteristics make it an ideal choice for some projects. While vanadium has never enjoyed the popularity of some other metals, it has been around for at least two centuries and has been used commercially for decades. This is an overview of vanadium and its discovery. Vanadium… Read more »
Rhenium is an extremely rare metal that has a range of different characteristics that make it ideal for many purposes today. It has the highest boiling point of any of the elements on the periodic table, and it has one of the highest melting points. As a result of this, rhenium is often used for… Read more »
For thousands of years now, people have been taking various metals, blending them together, and creating metal mixtures called alloys that have unique properties that make them valuable to human beings. Some example of alloys that have made a big impact on the world include bronze, which is a blend of tin and copper, and… Read more »
Gold, silver, and copper have historically been considered some of the most precious metals on the planet. But the truth is that lithium is actually one of the most important metals to humans right now. You might not necessarily spend much time thinking about lithium—and you probably wouldn’t ask your significant other to buy you… Read more »
Alloys are found in all sorts of things, including dental fillings, jewelry, door locks, musical instruments, coins, guns, and nuclear reactors. So what are alloys and what are they made of? Alloys are metals combined with other substances in order to make them better in some way. While some people assume the term ‘alloys’ means… Read more »
