Their beautiful green colour is due to traces of chromium. Analysis of the oxygen in these gems enables their source to be identified because the isotope ratio of oxygen to oxygen varies according to where the mineral is found. The Romans got their emeralds mainly from Austria, although some came from as far away as Pakistan. More surprising was the discovery that the Mogul rulers of India got some of theirs from Colombia in South America probably via trade across the Pacific.
The chief ores of beryllium are beryl and bertrandite, which is also a silicate. Sometimes truly enormous crystals of bertranide turn up, one specimen found in Maine in the USA was over 5 metres in length and weighed almost 20 tonnes.
That beryl and emerald might harbour a new element was suspected by the 18 th century and Nicholas Louis Vauquelin analysed them, and on 15 February he announced that they contained a new element - but he was unable to separated it from its oxide.
Beryllium metal was isolated in from beryllium chloride BeCl 2 by reacting this with potassium. Beryllium was to play a historic role in advancing our knowledge of atomic theory since it helped uncover the fundamental particle, the neutron.
This was discovered in by James Chadwick who bombarded a sample of beryllium with the alpha-rays which are helium nuclei emanating from radium. He observed that it then emitted a new kind of subatomic particle which had mass but no charge. The combination of radium and beryllium is still used to generate neutrons for research purposes, although a million alpha-particles only manage to produce 30 neutrons. Beryllium is a silvery-white, lustrous, relatively soft metal of group 2 of the periodic table.
The metal is unaffected by air or water, even at red heat. When copper and nickel are alloyed with beryllium they not only become much better at conducting electricity and heat, but they display remarkable elasticity. For this reason their alloys make good springs and the copper alloy is used to make spark-proof tools, which are the only ones allowed in sensitive areas such as oil refineries.
Beryllium has but a single isotope, beryllium-9 which is not radioactive but beryllium, which cosmic rays produce in the upper atmosphere, is radioactive with a half-life of 1. Radioactive beryllium has been detected in Greenland ice cores and marine sediments and the amount that has been measured in ice cores deposited over the past years increases and decreases in line with the Sun's activity, as shown by the frequency of sun-spots. That tells us that the Earth's magnetic field was much weaker then than it is now.
Richard Van Noorden with the story of Beryllium. Next time we're telling the tale of a pair of twins that can make a glass blower's life a lot safer. One day, as he stood at his lathe with an orange inferno raging before him I asked him about the glasses he was wearing. Try them. I slipped them on and suddenly the flame was gone. All I could see was a red-hot piece of spinning glass unobscured by the glare. I gawped in wonder until Geoff pulled the specs off my face saying "Give 'em back ya fool" and went back to his work.
And you can catch up on the story of Didymium and its mysterious light controlling chemistry with Andrea Sella on next week's Chemistry in its Element, I do hope you can join us. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening and goodbye. Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.
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Discovered by. Nicholas Louis Vauquelin. Origin of the name. The name is derived from the Greek name for beryl, 'beryllo'. Melting point. Boiling point. Atomic number. Relative atomic mass. Key isotopes. Electron configuration. CAS number. ChemSpider ID. ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database.
Electronegativity Pauling scale. Common oxidation states. Beryl ore is melted in industrial furnaces, solidified and crushed, then treated with sulfuric acid to produce a water-soluble sulfate.
Bertrandite ore is crushed, made into slurry and treated with sulfuric acid to form a sulfate. The sulfate solutions undergo a series of chemical extraction steps to ultimately produce extremely pure beryllium hydroxide, from which virtually all contaminants have been removed. Beryllium hydroxide is the common input material for copper beryllium alloys, beryllia ceramics and pure beryllium metal manufacturing.
Sources of Beryllium. Beryllium Extraction Only three countries, the United States, China and Kazakhstan, currently process commercially viable quantities of beryllium ores and concentrates into beryllium products. These days, beryllium is typically obtained from the minerals beryl and bertrandite in a chemical process or through the electrolysis of a mixture of molten beryllium chloride and sodium chloride, the Jefferson Lab reports.
Beryllium is found in about 30 mineral species, including bertrandite, beryl, chrysoberyl, and phenacite, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Beryl and bertrandite are the most important commercial sources of the element and its compounds. Beryllium is alloyed with copper or nickel to make springs, gyroscopes, electrical contacts, spot-welding electrodes and non-sparking tools, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Other beryllium alloys are used in high-speed aircrafts and missiles, as well as spacecraft and communication satellites. Beryllium copper is also used in windshield frame, brake discs, support beams, and other structural components of the space shuttle. Thanks to its low thermal neutron absorption cross-section, beryllium is used in nuclear reactors as a reflector or moderator. Moreover, the high melting point of beryllium oxide makes it a useful material for nuclear work and ceramic applications, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Beryllium has long been a topic of interest to researchers who have examined its harmful effects on health in people who are exposed to the metal on a daily basis for long periods of time. However, this risk does not apply to people in the general population who do not actually handle beryllium, Pepper said.
This immunologic response, called beryllium sensitization, can then develop into chronic beryllium disease, which causes scarring of the lung tissue and can be deadly. There is currently no cure for the disease, whose progression can be slowed by medication, oxygen therapy, and lung transplants in severe cases, according to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
Interestingly, not all those who get exposed to potentially harmful levels of beryllium will experience an allergic, potentially deadly reaction.
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