A Wisdom Archive on Tellurium

Tellurium (Latin tellus meaning "earth") was discovered in 1782 by the Hungarian Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein (Müller Ferenc) in Transylvania. In 1798 it was named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth who earlier isolated it. The 1960s brought growth in thermoelectric applications for tellurium, as well as its use in free-machining steel, which became the dominant use. ...

Read more here: » Tellurium: Encyclopedia II - Tellurium - History

Tellurium is sometimes found in its native form, but is more often found as the telluride of gold (calaverite), and combined with other metals. The principal source of tellurium is from anode sludges produced during the electrolytic refining of blister copper. It is a component of dusts from blast furnace refining of lead. Tellurium is produced mainly in the US, Canada, Peru, and Japan. Commercial-grade tellurium, which is not toxic, is usually marketed as minus 200-mesh powder but is also available as slabs, ingots, sticks, or lumps. The yearend price for tellurium in 2000 was US$ 14 per pound. ...

Read more here: » Tellurium: Encyclopedia II - Tellurium - Occurrence

Tellurium is a relatively rare element, in the same chemical family as oxygen, sulfur, selenium, and polonium (the chalcogens). When crystalline, tellurium is silvery-white and when it is in its pure state it has a metallic luster. This is a brittle and easily pulverized metalloid. Amorphous tellurium is found by precipitating it from a solution of tellurous or telluric acid (Te(OH)6). However, there is some debate whether this form is really amorphous or made of minute crystals. Tellurium is a p-type semiconductor that shows a greater conductivity in ...

Read more here: » Tellurium: Encyclopedia II - Tellurium - Notable characteristics

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a crystalline compound formed from cadmium and tellurium with a zinc blende (cubic) crystal structure (space group F43m). In the bulk crystalline form it is a direct bandgap semiconductor. Cadmium telluride - Applications. CdTe is a useful material for solar cells (photovoltaics). It is cheaper than silicon, especially in thin-film solar cell technology, but not as efficient. CdTe can be alloyed with mercury to make a versatile infrared detector material (HgCdTe). CdTe alloyed wi ... Including:

• Cadmium telluride - Applications
• Cadmium telluride - Physical properties
• Cadmium telluride - Thermal Properties
• Cadmium telluride - Optical Properties
• Cadmium telluride - Chemical properties
• Cadmium telluride - Toxicity

Read more here: » Cadmium telluride: Encyclopedia - Cadmium telluride

For fission of Uranium-235 the most common radioactive fission products include isotopes of Iodine, Caesium, Strontium, Xenon and Barium. Many of the fission products decay through very shortlived isotopes to form stable isotopes, but also a considerable number of the radioisotopes have half lives longer than a day. Some fission products are useful as beta and gamma sources in medicine and industry, see common beta emitters and commonly used gamma emitting isotopes for more details. Few fission products are alpha particle emitters, but ...

Read more here: » Fission product: Encyclopedia II - Fission product - Fission products listed according to atomic number

If a graph of the mass or mole yield of fission products against the atomic mass of the fragments is drawn then it has two peaks, one in the area strontium through to palladium and one at iodine through to neodymium. This is due to the fact that the fission event causes the nucleus to split in an asymmetric manner.[1] Yield vs. Z - This is a typical distribution for the fission of uranium. Please note in the calculations used to make this graph the activation of fission products was ignored and the fission was assumed to occur in a single moment rather than a length of time. In this bar chart results are ...

Read more here: » Fission product: Encyclopedia II - Fission product - Mass vs. yield curve