{"id":270540,"date":"2023-11-22T19:25:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T13:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=270540"},"modified":"2023-11-22T19:25:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T13:55:46","slug":"tantalum-the-rare-metal-found-in-sutlej","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tantalum-the-rare-metal-found-in-sutlej\/","title":{"rendered":"Tantalum, the rare metal found in Sutlej"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The post is based on the article<\/span><b> \u201cTantalum, the rare metal found in Sutlej<\/b><b>\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> published in<\/span><b> \u201cIndian Express\u201d on 22nd November 2023<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><b>Why in the News?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar has found the presence of tantalum in the Sutlej river sand in Punjab.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What is Tantalum?<\/b><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270541\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-270541\" style=\"width: 289px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-270541\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/download-1-1.jpeg?resize=289%2C175&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Tantalum\" width=\"289\" height=\"175\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-270541\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Specifications<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Details<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>What is it<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A rare metal.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Atomic Number<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">73<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Discovered in\u00a0<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1802 \u200b\u200bby <\/span><b>Anders Gustaf Ekenberg<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in minerals obtained from Ytterby, Sweden.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Named after<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greek mythological figure Tantalus.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Properties<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1) Grey, heavy and <strong>very hard<\/strong> metal<\/span><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2) <strong>Highly corrosion resistant<\/strong> as it forms an oxide layer on exposure to air which is extremely difficult to remove.<br \/>\n<\/span>3)<b> Ductile when pure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which means<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it can be stretched, pulled or drawn into a thin wire or thread without breaking.<br \/>\n<\/span>4) <b>Immune to most chemical attack<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>s<\/strong> below 150\u00b0C. It can be attacked only by hydrofluoric acid, acidic solutions containing the fluoride ion, and free sulphur trioxide.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5) E<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">xtraordinarily <\/span><b>high melting point, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only surpassed by tungsten and rhenium.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Uses<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1) Tantalum capacitors<\/span><b> store more electricity in smaller sizes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with minimal leakage. This makes it <strong>ideal for portable electronics<\/strong> like smartphones, laptops, and cameras.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2) Due to its high melting point, it is used as a <\/span><b style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;\">substitute for platinum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is more expensive.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3) <\/span><b>Used to make component<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>s<\/strong> for chemical plants, nuclear power plants, aeroplanes and missiles.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4) <\/span><b>Used in surgical equipment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and implants due to its inertness with bodily fluids.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5) Tantalum carbide (TaC) and graphite composite is <\/span>one of the hardest materials. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is used on the <strong>cutting edges of high-speed machine tools<\/strong>.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>UPSC Syllabus:<\/strong> Science and Technology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The post is based on the article \u201cTantalum, the rare metal found in Sutlej\u201d published in \u201cIndian Express\u201d on 22nd November 2023 Why in the News? A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar has found the presence of tantalum in the Sutlej river sand in Punjab. What is Tantalum?&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tantalum-the-rare-metal-found-in-sutlej\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tantalum, the rare metal found in Sutlej<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-270540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":8,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700689107},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}