germanium
Sign in to saveGermanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid (sometimes considered a nonmetal) in the carbon group that is chemically similar to silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature.
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Germanium is a hard, grayish-white chemical element (symbol Ge) that resembles silicon and belongs to the same family of elements, classified as a metalloid. Like silicon, it naturally combines with oxygen in the environment and has similar chemical properties, making it relevant to various industrial and scientific applications.
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Article
17 sectionsContents
- History
- Characteristics
- Chemistry
- Isotopes
- Occurrence
- Production
- Production by country
- Applications
- Optics
- Electronics
- Other uses
- Germanium and health
- Precautions for chemically reactive germanium compounds
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
Germanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid (sometimes considered a nonmetal) in the carbon group that is chemically similar to silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature.
Because it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was found comparatively late in the discovery of the elements. Germanium ranks 50th in abundance of the elements in the Earth's crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties from its position on his periodic table, and called the element ekasilicon. On February 6, 1886, Clemens Winkler at Freiberg University found the new element, along with silver and sulfur, in the mineral argyrodite. Winkler named the element after Germany, his country of birth. Germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of zinc), though germanium is also recovered commercially from silver, lead, and copper ores.