They make some hella strong aluminum(?) based alloys by adding scandium. These are the latest rage in very light weight handguns.
Tantalum? Hafnium?
Hafnium is vital in nuclear power industries. While it is possible to make reactors that arenot controlled with hafnium control rods*, hafnium is nearly unsurpassed in it’s utility because it has something like six or seven consecutive, high cross-section for absorbtion (of neutrons) isotopes. Which means that effectively a control rod made of hafnium will not become useless in damping neutron no matter how long it’s been being used. As compared to boron and other less ideal potential control poisons, which will absorb a single neutron, or maybe two, before becoming useless as a poison.
*“Reactor flush!”
It’s the active ingredient in one of the most common heart diagnosis radiopharmaceuticals.
Tantalum used to be used in capacitors. They may have discontinued that due to its toxicity, though.
Hafnium is used in semiconductors as a gate insulator; one of the solid-state geeks can dig in further, but I believe it has a higher dielectric constant than SiO, which allows for smaller transistors.
And, of course, the 1920’s wonder weapon of the future: The Hafnium bomb. (Why use a Wholnium bomb, when you can use half?)
Tantalum is still used in capacitors, and more importantly used in body implants and coatings. I’m not aware of any toxicity. I only know of one paper that speaks of possible sarcomas, but that’s not enough to worry me (i. e., one point on a Cartesian chart does not make a line).
Another big shout out for beryllium
Useful in Am-241 Be mixtures as sources of fast neutrons. Useful for various neutron measurements. Beryllium sheets are also good at absorbing various capture X-Rays, helpful in gamma ray spectroscopy.
Also good for beryllium copper alloys, a great non galling non magnetic material. good tensile properties without being too hard and reasonably immune to corrosion. Don’t tell the guys at Brush Wellman that beryllium is useless.
Not too healthy for you though, I seam to remember a short Sc-fi novel where crew of an exploratory ship became sick, and the odd kid on board went nuts and kidnapped everybody to fly them off the planet. Apparently he made some connection between beryllium being used in old florescent lamps and the symptoms being shown by the crew. Buggered if I can remember the title though.
Thallium - very useful as a doping agent in Gallium based gamma ray spectroscopes.
Upon Googling around, I see that you’re correct about the toxicity. Maybe I misremembered. Or perhaps I just didn’t understand the concerns properly, since I heard them as a little kid growing up in the TV shop–maybe there were tantalum caps at the time that had something else nasty in them.
Long-held bit of ignorance fought–thanks.
Sorry - Thallium is used in sodium iodide based GR spectroscopy
Lithium is used in germanium based detectors.
Thalllium, gallium Schmallium
How about beryllium. What the fuck is that good for?
It’s a shame your reading comprehension has fallen into the toilet.
I posted without reading the thread. I have been busted. How about californium? Fuck californium up the ass.
To me, it’s gold. (I even asked question on this awhile back). The only reason it’s valuable is because society deems it so. It doesn’t really DO anything other than look pretty. It’s not as if it’s the only substance that can fill a certain need in manufacturing or the computer age, or what have you.
For me, the fact that it’s been given this weird “false” value makes it even more useless than other elements that really truly don’t have a use.
Your welcome. But now the ancient stacks of my brain seem to remember something toxic about caps. I think the older oil-filled ones used PCBs. I know they were phasing those out in the 60’s. PCB’s were used everywhere. During college days, we had all of the fluorescent ballasts replaced in our Electrical Engineering building because of the hazards (this was in the early 80’s). What prompted this was leaky ballast during class started dripping and some of the people started getting sick. Things happened really fast after that. They replaced all of them that weekend AFAIR.
**DtC: ** Beryllium bicycle frame, which, unlike the Hafnium bomb, actually existed at one point (I heard it was stolen), but given the raw material costs, the hazards of manufacturing, and a cost of 25 G’s…it would be cheaper and healthier to loose a couple of pounds on a diet compared to what you save on frame weight.
I just Googled it. Never occurred to me you needed to kick start a nuclear reactor, but by golly, that’s one of Californium’s applications. I can see someone calling AAA, "Hey, my reactor won’t start–can you give me a jump with some californium?
Gold is very useful in electronics because of it’s corrosion resistance and ductility.
Here’s one example of gold’s toxicity
Also:
Now Minnesotium, there’s a useless element.
You have to admit that it’s above average in terms of uselessness.