11/13/2013

Uses of Semi-Metals in Industry | eHow

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Uses of Semi-Metals in Industry

By John Brennan, eHow Contributor
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Semi-metals or metalloids are intermediate between metals

and nonmetals in their properties. Their conductivity is
intermediate between that of metals and nonmetals; unlike
metals, they are not malleable. Their ionization energies
and electronegativities are also intermediate between
metals and nonmetals. There are seven metalloids among
the elements, namely, boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic,
antimony, tellurium and polonium. They form a stair-step pattern on the periodic table
starting with boron in column 13. Some of them are very useful in industry.

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Boron
Certain boron compounds like borane or diborane are very useful
in organic chemistry. Chemists can use borane and diborane, for
example, to add an -OH or alcohol group to a carbon chain that
contains a double bond. Sodium borohydride or NaBH4 is an
invaluable reducing agent that adds a hydrogen with two electrons
to organic compounds. Ketones like acetone, for example, contain
an oxygen atom double-bonded to a carbon atom in a chain.
Adding sodium borohydride to a ketone will reduce it to an alcohol.
Boron is also important for glassware. Glass made with boron
oxide is called borosilicate glass or Pyrex. Borosilicate is less likely
than ordinary glass to crack when heated, so it's used to make lab
glassware and some kinds of oven cookware as well.

Silicon
Silicon is the second-most abundant element in the Earth's crust.
Its most common compound is silicon dioxide, typically found as
sand or quartz. When heated and combined with sodium and
calcium oxides, silicon dioxide forms a hard transparent substance
called glass that enjoys countless uses both in industry and around
your home.
Although it's abundant, silicon isn't easy to refine and purify.
Nonetheless, pure silicon has become essential to industry for the
manufacture of devices the modern world considers essential:
transistors and integrated circuits. The microchips in the computer
you're using at this very moment contain silicon refined from
quartz. Many solar panels are made from silicon as well.

Germanium

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Silicon and boron are the two most useful and abundant metalloids; the others have fewer
uses. Germanium is often found as an impurity in zinc ore, so it's produced primarily from
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Uses of Semi-Metals in Industry | eHow

the flue dust of plants that process zinc. Like silicon, germanium is a semiconductor, so it's
often used in transistors, diodes and other solid-state electronics. Other uses include catalysts
for the manufacture of polymers in the chemicals industry and doping glass for use in fiberoptics cables.

Other Metalloids
Antimony is a toxic metalloid that was at one point in history had medicinal and cosmetic
uses. Today, antimony is primarily used to harden lead for storage batteries, although it's also
used to make solder for wire soldering. Arsenic was also once used in small doses to treat
syphilis; today, it's used in some pesticides and to strengthen lead alloys in lead shot or other
applications. Its uses are limited by its toxicity. Tellurium is a fairly rare element, but is used
to make cadmium telluride thin-film solar cells. Polonium is a radioactive, unstable toxic
element with no major uses at present. It achieved infamy in late 2006 when an assassin
used it to poison ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

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References
USGS Minerals Information: Germanium
University of Guelph: Semi-Metals
"Chemical Principles, the Quest for Insight, 4th Edition"; Peter Atkins, et al.; 2008
Occupational Health and Safety Administration: Antimony and Compounds
University of Denver, Physics Index: Arsenic
USGS Minerals Information: Tellurium

Photo Credit Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images

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