Tantalum : Found In The Sutlej River Sand
A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, found the presence of tantalum, a rare metal, in the Sutlej river sand in Punjab.
- Tantalum is a rare metal with the atomic number 73—the number of protons found in one atom of the element.
- The rare metal has been named after a Greek mythological figure, Tantalus.
- It’s grey, heavy, very hard, and one of the most corrosion-resistant metals in use today.
- It possesses high corrosion resistance because, when exposed to air, it forms an oxide layer that is extremely difficult to remove, even when it interacts with strong and hot acid environments.
- When pure, tantalum is ductile, meaning it can be stretched, pulled, or drawn into a thin wire or thread without breaking.
- It is almost completely immune to chemical attack at temperatures below 150°C and is attacked only by hydrofluoric acid, acidic solutions containing the fluoride ion, and free sulphur trioxide.”
- It also has an extremely high melting point, exceeded only by tungsten and rhenium.
- When it is placed in the midst of acids, it is incapable of taking any of them up
