germanium

Also known as Ge, element 32, 32Ge

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.

OverviewAI-generated

Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. Its standard atomic mass is 72.63. The element has an electronegativity of 2.01 and an ionic radius of 0.73. It exhibits oxidation states of -4, -3, -2, and -1. The standard molar entropy of germanium is 31.1, and its electrical conductivity is 2.17.

The element was discovered in 1886. It is referenced by 1,246 other encyclopedia articles. In chemical databases, it is associated with the PubChem CID 6326954 and the InChIKey GNPVGFCGXDBREM-UHFFFAOYSA-N. The IUPAC name for the element is germanium. It has zero hydrogen bond donors and acceptors, with a topological polar surface area of 0.

Synthesized by Vinony from 26 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubChem, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Chemical data

Formula: Ge
Molecular weight: 72.63 g/mol
IUPAC name: germanium
SMILES: [Ge]
InChIKey: GNPVGFCGXDBREM-UHFFFAOYSA-N
Polar surface area: 0 Å²
H-bond donors: 0
H-bond acceptors: 0
Formal charge: 0

via PubChem

Research

7,678 papers

Potential of germanium-based compounds in coronavirus infection.ReviewActa pharmaceutica (Zagreb, Croatia) · 2022Narokha V, Nizhenkovska I, Kuznetsova ODOI: 10.2478/acph-2022-0016
The role of germanium in diseases: exploring its important biological effects.Journal of translational medicine · 2023Luo X, Sun J, Kong D et al.DOI: 10.1186/s12967-023-04643-0
Germanium in Carbon Fullerenes: Quantum-Chemical Insights into Substitution, Adsorption, and Encapsulation Phenomena.ReviewInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Zielińska-Pisklak M, Jakubiec A, Szeleszczuk Ł et al.DOI: 10.3390/ijms262412067
Germanium.Occupational medicine · 1947HUEPER WC
Hazard assessment of germanium supplements.ReviewRegulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP · 1997Tao SH, Bolger PMDOI: 10.1006/rtph.1997.1098
History and recent advances in elemental analysis of germanium-based functional materials.ReviewTalanta · 2023Guselnikova TYDOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123792
Recovery technologies for indium, gallium, and germanium from end-of-life products (electronic waste) - A review.ReviewJournal of environmental management · 2023Zheng K, Benedetti MF, van Hullebusch EDDOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119043
Experimental germanium myopathy.Acta neuropathologica · 1991Higuchi I, Takahashi K, Nakahara K et al.DOI: 10.1007/BF00310923

via PubMed

~28 min read

Encyclopedic overview

17 sections

Contents

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

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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “germanium” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.