|
Tantalum Minerals
Tantalum is a chemical element; it has symbol Ta and atomic number 73. It is named after Tantalus, a figure in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a very hard, ductile, lustrous, blue-gray transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant. It is part of the refractory metals group, which are widely used as components of strong high-melting-point alloys. It is a group 5 element, along with vanadium and niobium, and it always occurs in geologic sources together with the chemically similar niobium, mainly in the mineral groups tantalite, columbite, and coltan. The chemical inertness and very high melting point of tantalum make it valuable for laboratory and industrial equipment such as reaction vessels and vacuum furnaces. It is used in tantalum capacitors for electronic equipment such as computers. It is being investigated for use as a material for high-quality superconducting resonators in quantum processors. History Tantalum was discovered in Sweden in 1802 by Anders Ekeberg, in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemical Element
A chemical element is a chemical substance whose atoms all have the same number of protons. The number of protons is called the atomic number of that element. For example, oxygen has an atomic number of 8: each oxygen atom has 8 protons in its atomic nucleus, nucleus. Atoms of the same element can have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, known as isotopes of the element. Two or more atoms can combine to form molecules. Some elements form Homonuclear molecule, molecules of atoms of said element only: e.g. atoms of hydrogen (H) form Diatomic molecule, diatomic molecules (H). Chemical compounds are substances made of atoms of different elements; they can have molecular or non-molecular structure. Mixtures are materials containing different chemical substances; that means (in case of molecular substances) that they contain different types of molecules. Atoms of one element can be transformed into atoms of a different element in nuclear reactions, which change an atom's at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coltan
Coltan (short for columbite–tantalites and known industrially as tantalite) is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite (after niobium's original American name ''columbium''), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite. Tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture tantalum capacitors which are used for mobile phones, personal computers, automotive electronics, and cameras. Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo#Mining resumes (2001–present), Coltan mining is widespread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Production and supply Approximately 71% of the global tantalum supply in 2008 was newly mined, 20% was from recycling, and the remainder was from tin slag and inventory. Tantalum minerals are mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Rwanda, Australia, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Kenya. Tantalum is also produced in Thailand and Malaysi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand
Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand (20 October 1826 – 5 November 1897) was a Swedish mineralogist and chemist. He was a professor at the University of Lund from 1862-1895, where he isolated the element niobium in 1864. He developed an early version of the periodic table and made advances in understanding the chemistry of coordination compounds. Blomstrand published textbooks in chemistry and was well-known internationally for his scientific contributions. Education and career Blomstrand was born in Växjö, Sweden to his father John Blomstrand, who was a teacher, and his wife Severina Rodhe. Blomstrand studied mineralogy at the University of Lund, where he earned a philosophy degree in 1850. He then became interested in chemistry and was the first recipient of the Berzelius scholarship. In 1854, he completed his habilitation for research on bromine and iodine compounds of tin. With the exception of lecturing at the Elementary Technical School of Malmö in 1855 and working as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelops
In Greek mythology, Pelops (; ) was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region (, lit. "Pelops' Island"). He was the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus. He was venerated at Olympia, where his cult developed into the founding myth of the Olympic Games, the most important expression of unity, not only for the people of Peloponnesus, but for all Hellenes. At the sanctuary at Olympia, chthonic night-time libations were offered each time to "dark-faced" Pelops in his sacrificial pit ('' bothros'') before they were offered in the following daylight to the sky-god Zeus (Burkert 1983:96). Family Pelops was a son of Tantalus and either Dione, Euryanassa, Eurythemista,Scholia ad Euripides, ''Orestes'11/ref> or Clytia. In some accounts, he was called a bastard son of Tantalus while others named his parents as Atlas and the nymph Linos. Others would make Pelops the son of Hermes and Calyce while another says that he was an Achaean from Olenus. Of Phrygian or Lydian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niobe
Niobe (; : Nióbē) was in Greek mythology a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa. She was the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Niobe is mentioned by Achilles in Homer's ''Iliad'', which relates her ''hubris'', for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis to slay all of her children, after which her children lay unburied for nine days while she abstained from food. Once the gods had interred the slain, Niobe retreated to her native Sipylus, "where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and though turned to stone, she broods over the sorrows sent by the Gods". Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the twin founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated, but no shrine to Niobe. Mythology Family Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in today's Aegean Turkey that was called "Tantalis" or "the city ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Rose
Heinrich Rose (6 August 1795 – 27 January 1864) was a German mineralogist and analytical chemist. He was the brother of the mineralogist Gustav Rose and a son of Valentin Rose. Rose's early works on phosphorescence were noted in the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1821, and on the strength of these works, he was elected privatdozent at the University of Berlin from 1822, then Professor from 1832. In 1846, Rose rediscovered the chemical element niobium, proving conclusively that it was different from tantalum. This confirmed that Charles Hatchett had discovered niobium in 1801 in columbite ore. Hatchett had named the new element "columbium", from the ore in which niobium and tantalum coexist. The element was eventually assigned the name niobium by the IUPAC in 1950 after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology. In 1845, Rose published the discovery of a new element pelopium, which he had found in the mineral tantalite. After subsequent research, pelopium was iden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Wöhler
Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the first to prepare several inorganic compounds, including silane and silicon nitride. Wöhler is also known for seminal contributions in organic chemistry, in particular, the Wöhler synthesis of urea. His synthesis of the organic compound urea in the laboratory from inorganic substances contradicted the belief that organic compounds could only be produced by living organisms due to a "life force". However, the exact extent of Wöhler's role in diminishing the belief in vitalism is considered by some to be questionable. Biography Friedrich Wöhler was born in Eschersheim, Germany, and was the son of a veterinarian. As a boy, he showed interest in mineral collecting, drawing, and science. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hyde Wollaston
William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingots,Melvyn C. UsselmanWilliam Hyde WollastonEncyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 31 March 2013 patented the camera lucida, and made contributions in electricity and spectroscopy. Life He was born in East Dereham in Norfolk, the son of the Francis Wollaston (1737–1815), a noted amateur astronomer, and his wife Althea Hyde. He was one of 17 children, but the family was financially well-off and he enjoyed an intellectually stimulating environment. He was educated privately (and remotely) at Charterhouse School from 1774 to 1778 then studied Sciences at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1793 he obtained his doctorate (MD) in medicine from Cambridge University, and was a Fellow of his college from 1787 to 1828. He worked as a ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbium
Niobium is a chemical element; it has symbol Nb (formerly columbium, Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a light grey, crystalline, and ductile transition metal. Pure niobium has a Mohs hardness rating similar to pure titanium, and it has similar ductility to iron. Niobium oxidizes in Earth's atmosphere very slowly, hence its application in jewelry as a hypoallergenic alternative to nickel. Niobium is often found in the minerals pyrochlore and columbite. Its name comes from Greek mythology: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, the namesake of tantalum. The name reflects the great similarity between the two elements in their physical and chemical properties, which makes them difficult to distinguish. English chemist Charles Hatchett reported a new element similar to tantalum in 1801 and named it columbium. In 1809, English chemist William Hyde Wollaston wrongly concluded that tantalum and columbium were identical. German chemist Heinrich Rose determined in 1846 that tantalum ores con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Hatchett
Charles Hatchett Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (2 January 1765 – 10 March 1847) was an English mineralogist and analytical chemist who discovered the element niobium, for which he proposed the name "columbium". Hatchett was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1795, and of the Royal Society in 1797. Hatchett was elected to the The Club (dining club), Literary Club in London in 1809 and became its treasurer in 1829. Life Charles Hatchett was born in Long Acre, London to John Hatchett (1729–1806), and Elizabeth Hatchett. John Hatchett was "(one of) the coachbuilders of London of the greatest celebrity". He later became a magistrate in Hammersmith. Charles Hatchett attended a private school, Fountayne's, in Marylebone Park, and was a self-taught mineralogist and analytical chemist. On 24 March 1786, Charles Hatchett married Elizabeth Martha Collick (1756–1837) at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Their children included: #John Charles Hatchett (bapt 27 January 1788 St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anders Ekeberg
Anders Gustaf Ekeberg (16 January 1767 in Stockholm, Sweden – 11 February 1813 in Uppsala, Sweden) was a Swedish analytical chemist who discovered tantalum in 1802. - subscription required He was notably deaf. Education Anders Gustav Ekeberg was a Swedish scientist, mathematician and expert in Greek literature. His father, Joseph Erik Ekeberg, was a shipbuilder. His uncle was Carl Gustaf Ekeberg. Anders Gustav Ekeberg attended school at Kalmar, Söderåkra, Vestervik, and Karlskrona. He was a gifted student and enrolled at Uppsala University in 1784, graduating in 1788. His thesis addressed the extraction of oils from seeds. In 1789 and 1790, he traveled and studied in Germany, hearing Martin Heinrich Klaproth lecture in Berlin as well as Christian Ehrenfried Weigel in Greifswald. Career In 1794, Anders Gustav Ekeberg began teaching at Uppsala. He was a supporter of Antoine Lavoisier's proposals for systematizing chemical nomenclature. In 1795 he and Pehr von Afzelius ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Processor
A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using specialized hardware. Classical physics cannot explain the operation of these quantum devices, and a scalable quantum computer could perform some calculations exponentially faster than any modern "classical" computer. Theoretically a large-scale quantum computer could break some widely used encryption schemes and aid physicists in performing physical simulations; however, the current state of the art is largely experimental and impractical, with several obstacles to useful applications. The basic unit of information in quantum computing, the qubit (or "quantum bit"), serves the same function as the bit in classical computing. However, unlike a classical bit, which can be in one of two states (a binary), a qubit can exist in a superposition of its two "basis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
