All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 73, a transition metal
A metal that shrugs off almost every acid, found in the tiny capacitors of phones and laptops.
Period 6, group 5. The other transition metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Like other transition metals, tantalum loses its outer s electrons, and often some d electrons as well, to form positive ions, and it can form more than one kind.
Mined as tantalite, often mixed with niobium in the ore called coltan. Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Brazil and Nigeria produce most of it, and mining in conflict zones has made it a notorious conflict mineral.
Anders Gustaf Ekeberg found it in 1802 in minerals from Sweden and Finland. He named it after Tantalus of Greek myth, doomed to stand in water he could never drink, because its oxide sat in acid without taking any up. For decades chemists wrongly thought it was the same element as niobium.
Tantalum capacitors, small and reliable, fill phones, laptops, cars and medical devices. Its resistance to corrosion and to body fluids suits surgical implants and chemical plant equipment, and it goes into superalloys for jet engines and carbide cutting tools.