What is the properties and uses of germanium?
It has a diamondlike crystalline structure and it is similar in chemical and physical properties to silicon. Germanium is stable in air and water, and is unaffected by alkalis and acids, except nitric acid. Germanium is an important semiconductor, mainly used in transistors and integrated circuits.
What are the uses of germanium?
The largest use of germanium is in the semiconductor industry. When doped with small amounts of arsenic, gallium, indium, antimony or phosphorus, germanium is used to make transistors for use in electronic devices. Germanium is also used to create alloys and as a phosphor in fluorescent lamps.
What are the properties of germanium?
Germanium is a hard, grayish-white element, has a metallic luster but is brittle like glass. It is classified as a metalloid having the same crystal structure as diamond….Physical Properties.
| Atomic number | 32 |
|---|---|
| Density, g/cm3 | 5.3234 |
| Melting point, °C | 938.4 |
| Boiling point, °C | 2,833 |
| Heat of fusion, kJ mol−1 | 36.94 |
Can germanium form double bonds?
In both, the germanium atom is essentially trigonal-planar and there is a shortening of 8-9% (Ge—C 1.98 Å) of the Ge—C bond. All three have trans-bent double bonds.
What are the properties of antimony?
Antimony is a semimetallic chemical element which can exist in two forms: the metallic form is bright, silvery, hard and brittle; the non metallic form is a grey powder. Antimony is a poor conductor of heat and electricity, it is stable in dry air and is not attacked by dilute acids or alkalis.
What are the properties of germanium and silicon?
Solid state electronics arises from the unique properties of silicon and germanium, each of which has four valence electrons and which form crystal lattices in which substituted atoms (dopants) can dramatically change the electrical properties.
Why is germanium used as a semiconductor?
Germanium atoms have one more shell than silicon atoms, but what makes for the interesting semiconductor properties is the fact that both have four electrons in the valence shell. As a consequence, both materials readily constitute themselves as crystal lattices. The process of adding these atoms is known as doping.
What is the reactivity of germanium?
Germanium is widely distributed in nature but is too reactive to occur free. Among the acids, only concentrated nitric or sulfuric acid or aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids) attack germanium appreciably.
What are the uses of antimony?
A lead-antimony alloy is used in batteries. Other uses of antimony alloys include type metal (in printing presses), bullets and cable sheathing. Antimony compounds are used to make flame-retardant materials, paints, enamels, glass and pottery.
What are the uses of silicon and germanium?
Silicon-germanium is an important material that is used for the fabrication of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors and strained Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors for advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and BiCMOS (bipolar CMOS) technologies.