Tungsten [W] (CAS-ID: 7440-33-7) locate me
An: 74 N: 110 Am: 183.84
Group No: 6  Group Name: (none)
Block: d-block  Period: 6
State: solid at 298 K
Colour: greyish white, lustrous Classification: Metallic
Boiling Point: 5828K (5555'C)
Melting Point: 3695K (3422'C)
Density: 19.25g/cm3
Shell Structure diagram | Atomic Radius diagram
Isotopes | More Info
Discovery Information
Who: Fausto and Juan Jose de Elhuyar
When: 1783
Where: Spain
Name Origin
Swedish: tungs ten (heavy stone): W symbol from its German name wolfram.
Sources
Occurs in the minerals scheelite (CaWO4), wolframite [(Fe,Mn)WO4], ferberite and huebnerite. China produces about 70% of the world's supply, but important deposits lie in Bolivia, California, Colorado, Portugal, Russia as well as South Korea.
Uses
Tungsten is a metal with a wide range of uses, the largest of which is as tungsten carbide (W2C, WC), which is one the hardest substances in existence. Cemented carbides (also called hardmetals) are wear-resistant materials used by the metalworking, mining, petroleum and construction industries. Tungsten is widely used in light bulb and vacuum tube filaments, as well as electrodes, because it can be drawn into very thin metal wires that have a high melting point.
When alloyed in small quantities with steel, it greatly increases its hardness. Used widely in the electronics industry. Made into filaments for vacuum tubes and electric lights. Also used in contact points in cars, heat sinks, weights, counterweights, welding electrodes, rocket nozzles and cutting tools. Combined with calcium or magnesium it makes phosphors.
Composites are used as a substitute for lead in bullets and shot.
Recently, Tungsten Carbide has been used in the fashioning of jewellery due to its hypoallergenic nature and the fact that due to its extreme hardness it is not apt to lose its luster like other polished metals.
Notes
Some sources give the German chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele as the first to isolate the metal, three years before the d'Elhuyar brothers, in 1780.
The light bulb manufacturer OSRAM (founded in 1906 when three German companies; Auer-Gesellerschaft, AEG and Siemens and Halske combined their lamp production facilities), derived its name from the elements of OSmium and wolfRAM - OSRAM.
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