The Definition of Niobium

Niobium is a lustrous light gray ductile metallic element also known as "columbium." Niobium, which falls under the transition metal category, is a relatively new element with a periodic table number of 41. It is a rare element not found all over the Earth. The minerals that contain niobium in extractable quantity are pyrochlore and columbite. Niobium is often confused with tantalum, another transition metal, because their chemical as well as physical properties are quite similar.

Discovery

• Charles Hatchett first reported the presence of an element similar to tantalum in 1801. It was only in 1846 that Heinrich Rose, a German chemist, gave the name "niobium" to this new element. The differences between tantalum and niobium were methodically demonstrated by Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand in 1864. It was around this time that niobium was first produced for commercial uses. Widespread commercial applications began in the twentieth century as filaments of incandescent lamps. In 1920 the element's importance to steel manufacturing was realized, and from then on most of its uses have been in the steel industry to increase the hardness of steel.

Characteristics

• Niobium is a low density metal. It gets a bluish tinge in the presence of air. Niobium is corrosion resistant and shows superconductivity. These properties, though, are highly dependant on the purity of the niobium. The higher its purity, the softer and more ductile it will be, and it will also be a better conductor. Its chemical properties are almost similar to tantalum, which appears below it in the periodic table, thus making it interchangeable for chemical applications. Because niobium is cheaper and more readily available than tantalum, it is used in many basic industrial applications in lieu of tantalum, even though it has lower corrosion resistance.

Occurrence and Production

• Niobium is the 33rd most abundant element on the Earth. However, it is not readily found on the Earth's crust because of its heavy density, which causes it to sink toward the Earth's core. The minerals that contain niobium are mined from below the Earth's crust and then processed to extract the niobium.

Uses in Industry

• Niobium has many industrial uses. It is primarily used for manufacturing low density but high strength steel. Niobium in conjunction with nickel, cobalt, and iron is used to prepare super alloys for making jet engine components and turbines. At below freezing temperatures, niobium acts as a superconductor. This property of niobium is used to make superconducting magnets.

Other Uses

• Niobium is inert within the human body; hence, it is used for manufacturing pacemaker machines. A pacemaker is an important electrical device for stimulating or steadying the heartbeat. It is also used in capacitors and inductors. Niobium is also a constituent of higher refractive glasses.