Semiconductors: tellurium

Image source: [1]

Tellurium is extremely rare, being one of the rarest elements on earth. It is in the same chemical family as Oxygen, Sulfide, Selenium, and Polonium. When crystalline tellurium is silver-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 tellurium or telluric acid (Te (OH) 6). Although several gold deposits contain tellurium minerals, the main commercial source of tellurium is a byproduct that comes from the production of copper and lead.

Tellurium is sometimes found in its native (elemental) form, but is found more often as the gold tellurides (Calaverite, Krennerite, Petzite, Sylvanite, and others). Tellurium compounds are the only gold chemical compounds found in nature, but tellurium itself (unlike gold) is also found in combination with other elements (in metallic salts).

The atomic mass of an element is determined by the total mass of neutrons and protons that can be found in a single atom belonging to this element. As for the position where tellurium is found within the periodic table of elements, tellurium is found in group 16 and period 5.

Image source: [2] Crystal structure of tellurium.

What is tellurium used for? 

Tellurium is used in the electronics industry because it is an element with great properties for conductivity.

• In solar panels of cadmium telluride (CdTe) some of the highest efficiencies for solar cell that generation of electric power has been obtained using this material. Massive commercial production of CdTe's solar panels began in recent years

• It is mainly used in alloys with other metals. It is added to lead to improve its strength and durability, and to reduce corrosion of sulfuric acid.

• When added to stainless steel and copper it makes these metals more achievable. It alloys in the cast iron for the control unpleasant.

• Very used in ceramics

• Used in the glasses of Chalcogenide

• As semiconductor and electronics industry applications and is prepared by the purification of the adduction.

• It is used in the media layer of rewritable compact discs (CD-RW) and rewritable Digital Video Discs (DVD-RW), in the rewritable Blu-Ray media layer DVD.

• Used in the new phase change memory chips developed by Intel.

• Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) has found use in thermoelectric devices.

• Used on X-ray solid state detectors.

More details here: tellurium

Here a video:

Video credits:   swissmetalinc