|
23. VanadiumName: Vanadium
Pure vanadium is a greyish silvery metal, and is soft and ductile. It has good corrosion resistance to alkalis, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and salt waters. The metal oxidizes readily above 660°C to form V2O5. Industrially, most vanadium produced is used as an additive to improve steels. Vanadium was originally discovered by Andres Manuel del Rio (a Spanish mineralogist) at Mexico City in 1801, who called it "brown lead" (now named vanadinite). Through experimentation, he saw that the colors it exhibited were reminiscent of chromium, so he named the element panchromium. He later renamed this compound erythronium, since most of the salts turned red when heated. A French chemist incorrectly declared that del Rio's new element was only impure chromium. Del Rio thought himself to be mistaken and accepted the statement of the French chemist. In 1831, Sefstrom of Sweden rediscovered vanadium in a new oxide he found while working with some iron ores and later that same year Friedrich Wohler confirmed del Rio's earlier work. Metallic vanadium was isolated by Henry Enfield Roscoe in 1867, who reduced the vanadium chloride (VCl3) with hydrogen. The name vanadium comes from Vanadis, the goddess of beauty in Scandinavian mythology because the element has beautiful multicolored chemical compounds. Powdered metallic vanadium is a fire hazard, and unless known otherwise, all vanadium compounds should be considered highly toxic. Generally, the higher the oxidation state of vanadium, the more toxic the compound is. The most dangerous one is vanadium pentoxide. Vanadium compounds may cause lung cancer if inhaled. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set an exposure limit of 0.05 mg/m3 for vanadium pentoxide dust and 0.1 mg/m3 for vanadium pentoxide fumes in workplace air for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour work week. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recommended that 35 mg/m3 of vanadium be considered immediately dangerous to life and health. This is the exposure level of a chemical that is likely to cause permanent health problems or death. Quick links
|