Discovery Information
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Who: Known to the ancients. |
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Name Origin
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Symbol Sn from Latin: stannum (tin). |
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Sources
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Principally found in the ore cassiterite(SnO2) and stannine (Cu2FeSnS4) in Malaya and Indonesia, Zaire and Nigeria, Bolivia and Thiland. 35 countries throughout the world mine tin. The pure metal
is formed by reduction with coal.
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Uses
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Used as a coating for steel cans. Also in solder (33%Sn:67%Pb), bronze (20%Sn:80%Cu), and pewter. Stannous fluoride (SnF5), a compound of tin and fluorine is used in some toothpaste. It is also used in the manufacture of super conducting magnets. While tin has many uses in alloys,
it has few uses in it's pure elemental form.
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Tin foil was once a common wrapping material for foods and drugs; now replaced by the use of aluminium foil, which is commonly referred to as tin foil.
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Notes
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Tin becomes a superconductor below 3.72K. Tin was one of the first superconductors to be studied. |
This metal resists corrosion from distilled, sea and soft tap water, but can be attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and by
acid salts. Tin acts as a catalyst when oxygen is in solution and helps accelerate chemical attack.
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Tin is the element with the greatest number of stable isotopes (ten). 18 additional unstable isotopes are known.
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