Vanadium:
Vanadium, a critical raw material for many industrial applications, has been found recently in sediment samples collected from the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat.
- Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol “V” and atomic number 23.
- It is a silver-gray, ductile, and malleable metallic element.
- It is harder than most metals and exhibits good corrosion resistance against alkalis and acids.
- It was discovered (1801) by the Spanish mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río, who named it erythronium but eventually came to believe it was merely impure chromium.
- The element was rediscovered (1830) by the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström, who named it after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and youth.
- The English chemist Henry Enfield Roscoe first isolated the metal in 1867 by hydrogen reduction of vanadium dichloride.
- Found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum, vanadium is the 22nd most abundant element in Earth’s crust.
- It is found in over 60 different minerals, including vanadinite, carnotite, roscoelite, and patronite.
- The largest resources of vanadium minerals are found in South Africa and Russia.
- Leading Producers: China, South Africa, and Russia.
