IT IS ELEMENTARY

Human Existence and the Chemical Elements

SC 210

May 21, 2015

John Bush

POSSIBLE CATEGORIES FOR NEXT FALL

• Transportation-ground, air

• Adornment-cosmetics, jewelry

• Nutrition

• Entertainment-movies, television, sports

• Lighting

• Construction-buildings, infrastructure

• Energy storage-batteries, capacitors, flywheels

• Other….

HOMICIDAL POISONING

• Criminal (murder)

• Suicidal

• State sanctioned—Judicial/Military

• Accidental

– Industrial

– Domestic

– Environmental

PARACELSUS “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison” (1538)

POISONOUS ELEMENTS

U.S. POISON CONTROL CENTERS FATALITIES 2013

LEAD Pb (Plumbum)

ELEMENTAL LEAD LEAD(II) ACETATE SUGAR OF LEAD

LEAD POISONING-EXAMPLES

• Vernon California: battery recycling plant

• Northern Nigeria: gold mining

• Mexico: lead glazed pottery

• United States: lipstick?

PARACELSUS “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison” (1538)

GOODBYE TO POISONING AND HELLO TO TEXTING

• Landline telegraphy

• Radio telephony

• Smartphones

INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION AT A DISTANCE

• Pre-1850s: information was primarily conveyed by moving materials

• Post 1850s: information is carried by electrons or photons (radio waves or light beams) – Landline telegraph-Internet of the 19th century

– Landline telephone

– Wireless telegraph and telephone

– Digitized information

• 2115 quantum entanglement ?

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR

LANDLINE TELEGRAPHY

• Electrical conductors

• Electromagnets

• Batteries/Power supplies

ELEMENTS

• Iron

• Copper

• Battery materials: copper, zinc, nickel, iron…

• Solders: lead, antimony, bismuth…

ELEMENTS: THE METALS

SOME COMMON PROPERTIES OF METALLIC ELEMENTS

• Optical- reflectivity, color

• Mechanical

• Thermal- conductivity

• Electrical- conductivity

• Magnetic—ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, diamagnetic

– “Hard” permanent

– “Soft” transient

CONDUCTING HEAT AND ELECTRICITY Relative to Iron @ 25° C

Heat Electricity

• Silver 4.3 5.4

• Copper 4.0 5.0

• Gold 3.2 4.0

• Iron 1.0 1.0

• Lead 0.3 0.4

• Silicon 1.5 0.02*

• Carbon (diamond) 29 0.00001*

*Undoped

SOME FERROMAGNETIC ELEMENTS

Element Curie Temperature

•Cobalt 1115° C

•Iron 770° C

•Nickel 354° C

IRON

IRON (Fe, FERRUM)

• Atomic number: 26, Isotopes 54*, 56,57,58

• Abundance 4th in crust (5%)

• Meteoric iron Egypt 3500 BCE; Smelted iron Syria 3000 BCE

• Uses: construction of buildings, bridges, cars and boats, tools and machinery; magnets; alloys; nutritional supplements and fertilizers; catalysts…

• Limitation: reactivity with oxygen to form rust

Jonathan Waldman, Rust: The Longest War

COPPER

NATIVE COPPER COPPER SCRAP

COPPER (Cu, CUPRUM))

• Atomic number 29, Isotopes 63, 65

• Abundance 26th in crust (50 ppm)

• In use since about 9000 BCE

• Uses: electrical wire and cable, electric motors, plumbing, electronics, architecture, jewelry, pigments, glass making, wood preservatives, brass, bronzes

• Some former uses: weapons, batteries

ELEMENTS NEEDED FOR:

LANDLINE TELEPHONY

• Critical invention-a means to make the strength of an electrical signal vary with the tones of speech

• Microphone

– Carbon granules

– Silicon microphones

• Speaker

– Suspended coil speakers

– Thermoacoustic “speakers on a chip”

CARBON (C) • Atomic number 6 Isotopes 12, 13, 14*

• Abundance 15th in the crust (1000 ppm)

• Soot and charcoal probably known before modern humans existed; diamonds known by 2500 BCE

• Uses

– Compounds-more than 10 million are known

– Element-gems, abrasives, fibers, vehicle parts, electrodes, pigments, adsorbents, lubricants…

FORMS OF CARBON

• Diamond

• Amorphous carbon

• Graphite

• Carbon fibers

• Graphene

• Fullerenes (“Buckyballs”)

• Carbon nanotubes

FORMS OF CARBON

DIAMOND

GRAPHITE

NANOTUBES

SOME STRUCTURES

NANOTUBES AND BUCKYBALLS COLLAPSED NANOTUBES

AMORPHOUS CARBON

PHOSPHORUS (P) • Atomic number 15 Isotope 31

• Isolated 1669 Recognized as elemental 1777

• Abundance 11th in the crust (1300 ppm)

• Current Uses: military weapons, fertilizers (an essential nutrient), baking powder, pesticides, electronics doping silicon, safety matches

• Former uses: detergents(US), strike-anywhere matches

• Future Use: phosphorene augmenting silicon in electronics?

ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS NEEDED FOR:

RADIO TELEPHONES • Vacuum tubes

• Resistors

• Capacitors

• Inductors

(Gyrators)

VACUUM TUBES

SILICON

ELEMENTAL SILICON SILICON CAMERA CHIP

SILICON DIOXIDE

QUARTZ SAND OPAL

SILICON (Si)

• Atomic number 14, Isotopes 28, 29, 30

• Abundance 2nd in the crust (28%)

• Isolated from the oxide: amorphous 1823, crystalline 1854; silicene 2010

• Uses: building materials, ceramics, glass, silicones, alloys, electronics: transistors, integrated circuits, solar cells, liquid crystal displays

FORMS OF ELEMENTAL SILICON

• Crystalline—diamond structure

• Amorphous

• Silicene—monolayer graphite-like structure

THE PERIODIC TABLE STIMULATES RESEARCH

THR PRTIODIC

TUNGSTEN

TUNGSTEN

TUNGSTEN CARBIDE

TUNGSTEN FILAMENT

TUNGSTEN (W)

• Atomic number 74 five isotopes-radioactive

• Abundance 19th in Earth’s crust (1.1 ppm)

• Discovered 1781, isolated 1783

• Highest melting point, lowest vapor pressure metallic element

• Uses: Vacuum tube/light bulb filaments, x-ray targets, cutting tools, jewelry, catalysts, alloys, deceptive gold

TRANSISTOR RADIO

PERSONAL COMPUTER

CELLPHONE

SMARTPHONES

APPLE WATCH

SMARTPHONES USE THE ELEMENTS FOR

• Phone/Wi Fi interfaces

• Processor/memory chips

• Vibration units

• Cameras

• Microphones/headphones/speakers

• Color/touch screens

• Batteries

• Casings

SMARTPHONES: ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION

• Screen/display: indium, tin, aluminum, silicon; sodium/potassium, rare earths, oxygen

• Electronics: copper, gold, silver, tin, tantalum, nickel, silicon-dopants such as phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, boron, indium, gallium (hafnium, titanium, aluminum, nitrogen), tungsten, oxygen, rare earths

SMARTPHONES: ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION

• Casing: carbon, bromine, nickel, aluminum, magnesium

• Microphone/speaker: iron, boron, rare earths

• Vibration unit: iron, boron, rare earths

• Battery: lithium, cobalt, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, boron, fluorine

ELEMENTS OF SMARTPHONES

RARE EARTH ELEMENTS

NEODYMIUM

NdFeB MAGNETS

NEODYMIUM METAL

NEODYMIUM (Nd)

• Atomic number 60 Seven “stable” isotopes

• Abundance 28th in crust (38 ppm)

• Discovered 1885 Carl Auer von Welsbach

• Current Uses: lasers, NdFeB magnets-hard disk drives, loudspeakers and headphones,

electric motors (e.g. hybrid vehicles, power

tools),electric generators(e.g. wind turbines)

APPLICATIONS OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS

• Hybrid and electric cars: Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb

• Catalytic converters: Ce, La

• Wind power generators: Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb

• Efficient lighting: Y, Eu, Tb

• Hard disk drives: Nd,Pr, Dy, Tb

• Flat panel display screens: Y, Eu, Tb, Gd, Pr, Ce

• Magnets for miniature components: Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb, Y, Eu

ELEMENTS OF SMARTPHONES

COBALT

ELEMENTAL COBALT 14TH CENTURY CHINESE VASE TARGET

COBALT

• Atomic number 27 Isotope 59

• Abundance 32nd in crust (20 ppm)

• Identified as an element 1732

• Current uses: essential in diet-vitamin B12, gamma ray source (60Co), pigments, high temperature-resistant alloys, wear-resistant alloys, magnetic alloys, batteries

ELEMENTS OF SMARTPHONES

TANTALUM

ELEMENTAL TANTALUM TANTALUM CAPACITORS

TANTALUM

• Atomic number 73 Isotopes 2

• Abundance 52nd in crust (1.5 ppm}

• Discovered 1802, recognized as an element 1844

• Uses: medical implants, bone repair, alloys, capacitors in mobile phones, computers,

CONFLICT ELEMENTS

• Rare earth elements

• Carbon-diamond

• Gold

• Cobalt

• Tantalum

NEXT WEEK A BRIEF HISTORY

• Finding the elements

• Constructing the periodic table