Technology metals – strictly speaking, they aren’t rare. Considering their circulation over the earth’s crust, technology metals avail in good quantity. Alongside copper, technology metals are twenty-fifth most abundant element discovered in the earth’s crust. Though these metals are widely spread, it is practically tough to discover enough of them concentrated in 1 locality. Here in this post, we will talk about few less known facts about technology metals:
* There’re seventeen technology metals including Scandium, Yttrium, Cerium, Lanthanum, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Promethium, Europium, Samarium, Terbium, Gadolinium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Thulium, Erbium, Lutetium and Ytterbium.
* Their names enlighten stories of their source. Technology metals are named after the people who founded them, for example, Samarium; the place where they were found first.
* Technology metal took a long expedition to discovery. It took nearly a hundred years prior to all recognized tech metals were founded, from the finding of “ytterbite” in 1787 to the 1940s when a chemical method was eventually developed which productively separated and sieved technology metals.
* Tech metals were taken from other associated minerals. Many of the tech metals were acquired from other minerals. For instance, Carl Gustav Mosander derived 3 oxides from Ytteria and came up with Erbium, Terbium and Yttrium.
* They are causing controversy in some countries of the globe. Mining technology metals increases environmental & geo-political problems particularly in Malaysia and China where they’re mined heavily. In Malaysia, the problem is with the technique the mining wastes are managed, which affects neighbouring towns and villages with accounted cases of birth flaws. In China, they’re cautiously considering restricting the mining of tech metals to stop over-exploitation.
* Tech metals are important to the technology industry. They’re employed for aerospace components, nuclear batteries, microwave filters, lasers, MRI contrast agents, battery electrodes, high-refractive index glass, etc.
They possess a higher demand in the international market. Because of their extensive use in technology, they boast a higher price in the market, to such an extent that they’ve a diverse pricing compared to gold and other costly metals.
