BARIUM
Barium is an alkaline earth metal. Due to its high reactivity, barium is not found as a free metal in nature. The most important barium minerals are heavy spar BaSO4 and witherite BaCO3. Deposits of these minerals are located all over the world.
Barium metal is produced in two steps, starting from barium carbonate. BaCO3 is subject to a reductive calcination. The resulting barium oxide is subsequently reacted to elemental barium under high vacuum. Further purification of barium may be facilitated by vacuum distillation.
PACKAGING GUIDELINES FOR BARIUM
The pure metal is classified as "Barium, UN #1400" for the purpose of transportation. Transportation of this material requires special approved packaging. Usually, barium is packed under argon or paraffin oil and can be handled under an inert atmosphere to prevent the formation of an oxide coating.
Barium is a strong reducing agent and forms hydrogen gas when in contact with water. Barium is therefore classified as a flammable solid. It is a class 4.3 material, i.e. it liberates flammable gases when in contact with water.
Barium should be stored in a well-ventilated, dry place, avoiding any contact with water. It is recommended that protective gloves and glasses should be worn when handling these materials.
STRONTIUM
For special applications, e.g. producing phosphorous materials for the lighting industry (LED), Albemarle is currently developing a suitable high-purity strontium metal.
In addition to this development, our team is prepared to consider new and unique products to suit novel and innovative applications. Please contact us to discuss how we can improve our standard offerings to better meet your needs.
HANDLING GUIDELINES FOR BARIUM AND STRONTIUM
Due to its reactive nature barium and strontium must be handled with care.
Incase of fire, use extinguishing powders on the basis of NaCl (e.g. Totalit M) or pulverized lime stone. Never use water, carbon dioxide, or carbon halides.
Barium is an alkaline earth metal. Due to its high reactivity, barium is not found as a free metal in nature. The most important barium minerals are heavy spar BaSO4 and witherite BaCO3. Deposits of these minerals are located all over the world.
Barium metal is produced in two steps, starting from barium carbonate. BaCO3 is subject to a reductive calcination. The resulting barium oxide is subsequently reacted to elemental barium under high vacuum. Further purification of barium may be facilitated by vacuum distillation.
PACKAGING GUIDELINES FOR BARIUM
The pure metal is classified as "Barium, UN #1400" for the purpose of transportation. Transportation of this material requires special approved packaging. Usually barium is packed under argon or paraffin oil and can be handled under an inert atmosphere to prevent the formation of an oxide coating.
Barium is a strong reducing agent and forms hydrogen gas when in contact with water. Barium is therefore classified as a flammable solid. It is a class 4.3 material, i.e. it liberates flammable gases when in contact with water.
Barium should be stored in a well-ventilated, dry place, avoiding any contact with water. It is recommended that protective gloves and glasses should be worn when handling these materials.
STRONTIUM
For special applications, e.g. producing phosphorous materials for the lighting industry (LED), Albemarle is currently developing a suitable high-purity strontium metal. In addition to this development, our team is prepared to consider new and unique products to suit novel and innovative applications. Please contact us to discuss how we can improve our standard offerings to better meet your needs.
HANDLING GUIDELINES FOR BARIUM AND STRONTIUM
Due to its reactive nature barium and strontium must be handled with care. In case of fire, use extinguishing powders on the basis of NaCl (e.g. Totalit M) or pulverized lime stone. Never use water, carbon dioxide, or carbon halides
Cesium metal is used in a variety of specialized applications such as atomic clocks, ionic sources, lamps, doping of fullerenes, atomic beam oscillators, photocells, thermoionic converters etc.
In elemental form, cesium is a soft, shiny, gold-colored metal, which melts slightly above room temperature.
Although cesium has a large number of isotopes, naturally occurring cesium is exclusively the non-radioactive isotope 133cesium.
We offer different types and sizes of borosilicate glass ampoules to match your application - regular ampoules and such with a breakseal.
AMPOULES
We supply ampoules with metal fillings of 1g, 5 g, 10g, 50g, and 100g, or optional steel containers holding larger quantities (> 1 kg).
The cesium metal is filled into the ampoules via distillation and stored under vacuum. The ampoules are made of borosilicate glass and are either normally shaped or equipped with a breakseal.
Lithium Metal in Batteries
One important field of application for lithium metal is the production of lithium batteries. All of the primary lithium batteries available on the market use lithium metal or lithium alloys with a low sodium content (“battery grade”) as the anode material.
Lithium Metal in Alloys
Lithium forms many alloys with other metals such as lead, copper, silver, magnesium, silicon, and aluminum. The alloys most commonly used in current aerospace applications are lithium aluminum alloys containing 1-3 weight % of lithium. These materials account for weight savings of 5%, an increased stiffness up to 7%, and increased strength of up to 30% as compared with the conventional lithium-free aluminum alloys.
Lithium in Organic Synthesis
Because of its high reduction potential and good molar solubility, lithium is a very versatile reducing agent for the partial hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds, especially for the reduction of aromatic systems (Birch reductions). These reductions are applied successfully in organic synthesis of many compounds of biological and pharmaceutical interest such as steroids and vitamins.
Titanium is the 10th most abundant element of the periodic system and thus more abundant than chlorine, sulfur, phosphorus, or the rest of the metals all together. Titanium is found in almost 100 different minerals, the most important ones are the three TiO2 modifications rutile, anatase, and brookite, as well as ilmenite FeTiO3, perovskite CaTiO3, and titanite CaTi(SiO4)O.
The global reserves of rutile and ilmenite (calculated as TiO2) are estimated to amount to approx. 423•106 - 600•106 tons. The largest deposits of ilmenite are located in South Africa, India, USA, Canada, Norway, Australia, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Rutile is most abundant in Brazil.
Titanium metal powder, for instance, is produced by subjecting titanium sponge to HDH (hydration-dehydration) treatment. This sponge can be obtained, for example, from TiCl4 by applying the well-known Kroll-process.
PURITY LEVELS
There are various grades of titanium metal powder and hydrides available. The classification of Albemarle's titanium products is not governed by the chemical assay. Instead, the different grades available are regarded as performance parameters and defined by a specific interaction of physical properties.
These physical properties are primarily expressed by:
- Ignition point
- Combustion rate
- Ignition gain, and
- Particle size.
HANDLING GUIDELINES
The information given below is intended to outline potential hazards associated with the use of zirconium, zirconium hydride, titanium, titanium hydride and Zr/Ni-alloys in powdered form.
More important, it supplies appropriate advice for secure handling and will help the reader to use our products safely.
All product information is given to the best of our knowledge and according to the present state of the art, but does not indemnify the user from his own responsibility to exclude all risks associated with application and handling himself. It is recommended that processes involving the handling of such powders are to be additionally reviewed by occupational safety specialists.
If you need any further information on this topic, please do not hesitate to contact us.
PACKAGING GUIDELINES
Due to the hazardous nature of metal powders and metal hydrides the requirements for safe packaging are extremely important. The choice of appropriate packaging is determined by our product knowledge and the applicable official transport regulations.
In principle, we offer different types of containers:
- Ring-pull cans used for dry products,
- Lever-lid cans suitable for dry products, with or without pre-packaging in PE bags
- Double-seamed tin cans and open-top cans (metal-clamped) suitable for dry products and as transport containers for suspended products pre-packaged in PE bottles.
PROPERTIES OF TITANIUM PRODUCTS
We supply information on the major performance parameters, which is the basis of our definition of the various grades of available zirconium and titanium metal powders and hydrides.
Zirconium is the 20th most abundant element of the periodic system. It is only found in a fully oxidized state, never as a free metal. The over 40 known minerals can be roughly grouped in zirconium orthosilicates, zirconium dioxide, zirconium silicates (with Na, Ca, Fe, and other elements), zirconium carbonates (with Na, Ca, and other elements), and others.
The commercially most important mineral is zircon (ZrSiO4), which contains contaminations of Hf, Fe2O3, and CaO. The ore is recovered from sand deposits in the coastal areas of Australia, Florida, South Africa, India, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Apart from zircon, baddeleyite ZrO2 and eudialyte are also commercially employed.
Zirconium metal powder is usually produced by reducing zirconium dioxide ZrO2. ZrO2 is either supplied as baddeleyite, or obtained by caustic fusion of zircon in a sodium-hydroxide melt.
PURITY LEVELS
There are various grades of zirconium metal powder and hydrides available. The classification of Albemarle's zirconium products is not governed by the chemical assay. Instead, the different grades available are regarded as performance parameters and defined by a specific interaction of physical properties.
These physical properties are primarily expressed by:
- Ignition point,
- Combustion rate,
- Ignition gain, and
- Particle size.
HANDLING GUIDELINES
The information given below is intended to outline potential hazards associated with the use of zirconium, zirconium hydride, titanium, titanium hydride and Zr/Ni-alloys in powdered form. More important, it supplies appropriate advice for secure handling and will help the reader to use our products safely.
All product information is given to the best of our knowledge and according to the present state of the art, but does not indemnify the user from his own responsibility to exclude all risks associated with application and handling himself. It is recommended that processes involving the handling of such powders are to be additionally reviewed by occupational safety specialists.
If you need any further information on this topic, please do not hesitate to contact us.
PACKAGING GUIDELINES
Due to the hazardous nature of metal powders and metal hydrides the requirements for safe packaging are extremely important. The choice of appropriate packaging is determined by our product knowledge and the applicable official transport regulations.
In principle, we offer different types of containers:
- Ring-pull cans used for dry products,
- Lever-lid cans suitable for dry products, with or without pre-packaging in PE bags
- Double-seamed tin cans and open-top cans (metal-clamped) suitable for dry products and as transport containers for suspended products pre-packaged in PE bottles.
PROPERTIES OF ZIRCONIUM PRODUCTS
We supply information on the major performance parameters, which is the basis of our definition of the various grades of available zirconium and titanium metal powders and hydrides.
Albemarle also supplies other metal products like
- Hafnium hydride,
- Calcium hydride,
- Magnesium powder.
Hafnium Hydride
Mixed with oxidizing agents, HfH2 is used as a constituent part in compositions for flares, fuzes, and combustion charges in pyrotechnics. HfH2 will also be used as an alloying constituent in powder metallurgy.
Calcium Metal Products
We offer different grades of calcium hydride in lumps, granules, or powder form. Calcium hydride is used primarily as a source of
hydrogen, as a drying agent for liquids and gases, and as a reducing
agent for metal oxides.
Calcium hydride serves as a convenient source of clean, though wet, hydrogen, by reaction with water in simple, low cost, lightweight generators. One pound of calcium hydride yields 17 cubic feet of hydrogen at standard temperature and pressure. By reacting with water, calcium hydride generates twice as much hydrogen as may be expected from its empirical formula according to the following reaction:
CaH2 + 2H2O → Ca(OH)2 + 2H2
This property is most useful one in energy-storage applications.
Calcium hydride dries gases and liquids by means of an irreversible
reaction with water, according to the equation shown above. By this
reaction, 7 kg of CaH2 will remove 6 kg of water. Please keep in mind: 7 kg of CaH2 generate approx. 7 m3 of hydrogen when mixed with two equivalents of water.
Because of potentially dangerous reactions, CaH2 is not recommended for drying chlorinated or fluorinated carbon compounds.
