What is Indium used for? Although Indium is a rare metal that demands significant effort to obtain, Indium is used in most of the electronic devices that you find or have at home currently.
Below are some indium facts that you should know about. I also answer the question, what is Indium used for in more detail.
Scrapping requires knowledge of all types of metal. This job is not about just trying to find copper.
There are many metals that are worth just as much as gold.
Many chemical elements are important assets to our society today. By using these elements, our lives have become much easier because we are able to create things that would not be possible without their existence.
What is Indium Used for Today
Indium is extremely important to our modern society. Without this rare metal, we would not have flat screen televisions, computer monitors, touch screen devices, or LCD displays.
This element makes our lives much easier and provides the conveniences that help our society today.
Since it does not react to oxygen, it is used to protect the other metals from the erosion effects that oxygen usually have on metals.
This element has been added to gold and platinum to make them stronger. It’s added to silver to make Indium silver as well.
It is also used in dental materials to hold them together as well.
This also gives insight to its chemical properties. This element has chemical properties that makes it extremely useful.
This means that it can be broken down or mixed with other chemical elements.
While it has been mentioned that indium can be broken down and used in many items that contribute to the production of society. It can also mix with other elements.
For example, when the temperature gets extremely high, one element that can combine with this element is oxygen. When the two combine they create an element called indium-oxide.
The Science Behind Indium
This element is found in the periodic table in the aluminum family. It’s atomic number is 49, its atomic symbol is IN, and it’s atomic weight is 114.818.
The physical properties of indium are very interesting. Its composition is very different from the other elements. It is a soft, rare, metal that is easily fusible. This element is so rare that it is extremely rare to find on this earth.
This sound is made when you bend this metal and it lets out a scream-like sound.
The melting point of this element is a hot 313.9 degree Fahrenheit or 156.6 Celsius. The temperature it has to reach to get to its boiling point is 3761.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2,075 degrees Celsius.
When was Indium Discovered
The discovery of indium occurred in 1863 in Germany, by Ferdinand Reich and Theodore Richter. They were there to originally learn about the composition of thallium when they discovered this new element.
The physical appearance of this new metal was a silver-white color with an indigo colored line that ran through it.
The two men isolated the element to study it more and learned that it could be combined with other elements but it could also be used on its own.
As you already know, metal prices change daily but scrap Indium generally always is worth more than $200 a pound.