All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 74, a transition metal
The metal with the highest melting point of all, the glowing filament of the classic light bulb, and the heart of the hardest cutting tools.
Period 6, group 6. The other transition metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Tungsten has 74 electrons, one for every proton, so the atom carries no charge. Below are the same 74 electrons written two ways.
1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 3d¹⁰ 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴ 5s² 5p⁶ 5d⁴ 6s²
Short form: [Xe] 4f¹⁴ 5d⁴ 6s², where [Xe] stands for the 54 electrons xenon already has.
That list runs by shell. In the order the subshells fill it reads [Xe] 6s² 4f¹⁴ 5d⁴, because a subshell fills by its energy, not by its shell number.
The simple form counts electrons shell by shell. The orbital form says which subshell each one sits in: s holds 2, p holds 6, d holds 10 and f holds 14. Shell 4 here is 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴, and 2 + 6 + 10 + 14 is 32.
Tungsten sits in period 6 and has 6 shells. The period number counts the shells.
The outer shell holds 2 electrons. Those are the ones tungsten can lose, gain or share, so they are the ones that decide what it bonds with.
Like other transition metals, tungsten 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 wolframite and scheelite, mostly in China, which produces over 80% of the world's supply.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele showed in 1781 that the mineral now called scheelite held a new acid, and in 1783 the Spanish brothers Juan José and Fausto Elhuyar isolated the metal from wolframite. Tungsten is Swedish for heavy stone. The symbol W comes from wolfram, its German name, after the mineral wolframite.
About half becomes tungsten carbide, nearly as hard as diamond, for drill bits, saw teeth, mining tools and the balls of ballpoint pens. Tungsten also makes light bulb filaments, X-ray tube targets, welding electrodes, heavy alloys for counterweights and darts, and radiation shielding.