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In the concluding episode of Elemental, hosts Alison Balance and Alan Blackman delve into Zirconium, the 40th element. They uncover its diverse applications, from being a critical component in gemstones like zircons and cubic zirconia, to its use in medical implants and specialized nuclear reactor alloys, despite some historical safety challenges. The discussion also covers Zirconium's remarkable properties, including its extreme resistance to heat and corrosion, its refractory nature, and intriguing compounds like those exhibiting piezoelectricity and negative thermal expansion, culminating in a reflection on the entire series.
Zinc is a very useful metal that turns up in everything from sunscreen to paint, & galvanised metals to cereals, as well as brass instruments, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 97 of Elemental. The major use of zinc is to galvanise steel in order to stop it corroding. This is because zinc oxidises more readily than iron, meaning it loses electrons more easily; chemists describe zinc as acting as the sacrificial anode, as oxidation occurs at the anode. The transition metal was well-known to the ...
Yttrium is yet another element named after the village of Ytterby and is important in the development of high temperature superconductors, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 96 of Elemental. Here we go again - yet another element named after the Swedish village of Ytterby with a suitably tortuous extraction process, although surprisingly it is actually not a lanthanoid; it is a transition metal. It is used in camping gas mantles along with thorium, is added to cast iron to make it more ductile, ...
Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 95 of Elemental. Ytterbium is yet another lanthanoid named after the Swedish village of Ytterby. It is a sister element to erbium, terbium and yttrium. The ytterbium lattice clock is one of the world's most accurate clocks, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 95 of Elemental. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details...
Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights, gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for spacecraft & plays a key role in the search for dark matter, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 94 of Elemental. Xenon is a noble gas that turns up in various lights. It gets used in xenon ion propulsion systems for spacecraft. Xenon plays a key role in the XENON detector which is used in the search for dark matter. Xenon is also the 'perfect' anaesthetic, says Professor Allan Blackman fr...
Vanadium makes steel stronger & lighter, is being used in what will be the world's largest battery, and sea squirts are full of it, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 93 of Elemental. Vanadium is a transition metal used to make steel stronger & lighter. It is named after the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and fertility Vanadis. Vanadium is being used in what will be the world's largest battery, and sea squirts are one of a small handful of organisms that contain large amounts of van...
Named after the planet Uranus & associated with Hiroshima & nuclear bombs, uranium is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on earth, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 92 of Elemental. Uranium is named after the planet Uranus. Uranium (atomic number 92) is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on earth It is associated with Hiroshima and nuclear bombs, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, ...
Tungsten's very high melting point made it an ideal filament for incandescent light bulbs, & as it is in some enzymes it is the heaviest element used in nature, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 91 of Elemental. Tungsten is the metal with the highest melting point and this made it an ideal filament for incandescent light bulbs. It also has the highest tensile strength of any metal. It occurs in some enzymes (in a few bacteria and archaea only), making it the heaviest element used in nature,...
Titanium is light, strong, corrosion resistant & is used to repair broken limbs as it is able to get integrated into the bone, says Allan Blackman from AUT speaking from personal experience in ep 90 of Elemental. Titanium is light, strong and corrosion resistant, and widely used in aircraft, bike frames, golf clubs and spectacle frames. It is used to repair broken limbs as it is able to be integrated into the bone, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, spe...
The element tin turns up in all sorts of alloys, but tin cans are - mostly - not made from tin, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 89 of Elemental. The element tin turns up in all sorts of alloys, especially bronze. Tin is found in tin whistles, organ pipes and with lead in electrical solders. Tin cans are - mostly - not made from tin, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 89 of Elemental. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details...
Isolating the element thulium was a truly laborious process that took many years, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 88 of Elemental. Isolating the element thulium was a truly laborious process that took many years. Charles James had to carry out 15,000 recrystallisations to prepare his sample when he was wanting to determine the atomic weight of thulium, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 88 of Elemental. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for...
Named after Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, thorium could provide a cleaner source of nuclear power in the future, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in episode 87 of Elemental. Named after Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, thorium could provide a cleaner source of nuclear power in the future. All of its isotopes are radioactive, and it was the second element to be classified as radioactive, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 87 of Elemental. Go to ...
Thallium is most famous for some infamous poisoned family cases & its appearance in an Agatha Christie novel solved a medical mystery, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 86 of Elemental. Thallium is most famous for some infamous poisoned family cases, and used to be used as rat poison. It is highly toxic because it 'looks' like potassium to mammalian bodies. Its appearance in the Agatha Christie novel 'The Pale Horse' solved a medical mystery, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland ...
A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 85 of Elemental. A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, the lanthanoid terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 85 of Elemental. For further elements named after Y...
Tellurium is a metalloid often found with gold and the US town Telluride is named after it, says Prof Allan Blackman, in ep 84 of Elemental. Tellurium was one of Mendeleev's rare mistakes on the original periodic table as he put it in the wrong place. Tellurium compounds are most famous for their nasty and persistent smell. Just fifteen milligrams of tellurium oxide taken orally will still be detectable as 'tellurium breath' eight months later. And the smell? Like bad garlic, owing to the produc...
Technetium was the first element on the periodic table to be synthesised. It is rare, radioactive and has only a few uses, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 83 of Elemental. Dmitri Mendeleev predicted some of the properties of element 43, but it remained stubbornly undiscovered until l937. The reason it was hard to discover is that the radioactive element doesn't really exist on Planet Earth. Its great claim to fame is that it was the first element to be synthesised, hence its name, technetium, fro...
The metal tantalum is usually found with the element niobium, has a very high melting point but is a 'conflict mineral', says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 82 of Elemental. Tantalum is almost always found in association with niobium, which is why tantalum is named after Tantalus, the father of Niobe. Tantalus was condemned to eternal hunger and thirst by the Greek Gods, even when he was surrounded by fruit and water. The discoverer of tantalum thought it was a fitting name as the element, "when plac...
Sulfur is responsible for some very bad smells, is the number one industrial chemical and is also an essential element, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 81 of Elemental. Sulfur is associated with many bad smells, think farts and Rotorua. The smells are caused by thiols, also known as mercaptans, which are compounds with a sulfur bonded to a hydrogen. An example is the smell of H2S, or rotten egg gas, which can be fatal. However, thiols are also responsible for more pleasant aromas, such as the sme...
Named after a Scottish town, strontium can be highly radioactive & glow-in-the-dark, but also used in toothpaste, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 80 of Elemental. Strontium is named after the Scottish village of Strontian and is the United Kingdom's only claim to fame on the periodic table. It is a group 2 metal that sits between calcium and barium on the periodic table, and is best known for producing a brilliant crimson-red colour in fireworks. Strontium aluminate is widely used i...
Sodium is vital for life & usually found in combinaton with other more interesting elements, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 79 of Elemental. Would you willingly eat the product obtained from the reaction of a metal which reacts violently with water and a poisonous gas that was used as a chemical weapon in World War One? Well, put like that you'd probably answer 'no', but chances are that you've already eaten some today, in the form of sodium chloride or salt. Sodium the element is a highly r...
Silver is widely used in jewellery, has interesting light sensitive abilities and has antimicrobial properties, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 78 of Elemental. Argentina and the Rio de la Plata both take their name from the element silver, whose chemical symbol Ag comes from the Latin argentum. Silver has always played second fiddle to gold as it is not always found as a pure metal in nature. It is very prone to tarnishing, although that hasn't stopped its use in jewellery, cutlery and ...
Silicon is a blockbuster metalloid with many uses, from glass to computer chips & bathroom sealants, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 77 of Elemental. Silicon underpins modern technology and has been a ubiquitous part of our lives since the 1950s, when the silicon chip was invented. But although billions of silicon chips are produced each year, this only uses 5 percent of the world's silicon production. The rest is used in glass, concrete, brick and silicone polymers. In nature the mo...
New Zealand soils lack the vital element selenium, which also used to be important in photocopiers and bathroom plumbing, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 76 of Elemental. Selenium is named after the moon. There is some debate as to whether it is a metalloid or a non-metal. It is a trace element that New Zealand soils are deficient in. As a result, Kiwis are recommended to eat foods such as brazil nuts and seafood that are rich in selenium. Selenium occurs as three allotropes, and the gre...
Predicted by Mendeleev & useful for alloying with aluminium, scandium was involved in a famous cricket scandal, says AUT's Allan Blackman in ep 75 of Elemental. Scandium is named after Scandinavia, and it was the second of Mendeleev's predicted elements to be discovered. Scandium is the first transition metal on the periodic table. It is roughly the same density as aluminium but has a higher melting point, which means it can be welded. The most famous story involving scandium concerns a cric...
Samarium magnets are used in headphones & guitar pickups, and samarium was the first element named after a real person, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 74 of Elemental. Samarium was the first element on the periodic table to be named after a real, as opposed to a mythical, person. It is a lanthanoid and alloys of it are useful in magnets, which can be thousands of times stronger than iron magnets. These magnets are found in headphones and high-end magnetic pickups for electric guitar...
Ruthenium is a 'sort of' precious metal that is a useful catalyst and alloy. It is toxic and smells like ozone, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 73 of Elemental. Ruthenium is a rare transition metal produced mostly as a by-product of nickel mining. It is not widely used industrially, although it is found in some catalysts and alloys. It is more useful in the chemistry laboratory, where it has helped several chemists win Nobel Prizes. Ruthenium is toxic and if you have the bad fortune to be exp...
Rubidium is a reactive metal with few uses, named 'deepest red' due to its beautiful red spectral lines, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 72 of Elemental. Rubidium is named after the Latin word rubidius, meaning 'deepest red.' It is a group one metal, which makes it soft, highly reactive with water and with a low melting point. Rubidium helped win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 for the discoverers of Bose-Einstein condensates, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Tec...
Rhodium is an expensive precious metal that is used in catalytic convertors, to make the Parkinson's drug L-DOPA, create shiny jewellery and add the menthol taste to toothpaste, says Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 71 of Elemental. Rhodium is a very expensive precious metal, whose major use is in catalytic convertors, as it is very good at reducing levels of nitrogen oxides. The metal is used in mirrors and optical fibres, and as it is very shiny it is sometimes used as a coating for jewellery mad...
Named after the Rhine river, rhenium is a metal with very high boiling and melting points, and it was the last naturally occuring, non-radioactive element to be discovered, says Prof Allan Blackman in ep 70 of Elemental. The chemical element rhenium is named after the Rhine River. It is one of the rarest elements in the earth's crust and the last of the naturally-occurring non-radioactive elements to be discovered. Rhenium has a number of claims to chemical fame: the metal has the highest boilin...
The radioactive gas radon can be a risk in the basements of stone houses and used to, erroneously, be touted for its health benefits, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT in ep 69 of Elemental. Radon was originally named 'radium emanation' by its discoverer, Kiwi chemist Lord Ernest Rutherford. It is a noble gas and is produced by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. People who live in stone buildings can be at risk from radon gas as it escapes from rocks - it is heavy so it tends to lodge...
