Germanium Industry Annual Report 2017
2018-02-24 18:06:08 【Print】
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1. A brief introduction on Chinese germanium industry
1.1. Characteristics of germanium metal
The element of germanium falls into IVA group in the periodic table. With a chemical symbol of Ge, it has an atomic number of 32 and atomic mass of 72 . 64 . Its melting point is 937 . 4 °C while its boiling point is 2830 °C, and it has a density of 5.35g/cm-3 and a hardness of 6-6 . 5 . It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid of the carbon group . Germanium is stable in air at room temperature and does not react with water vapor; but at a temperature of between 600-700℃, it is quickly oxidized into germanium dioxide . The content of germanium in the earth's crust is about 0 . 0007% , and there is almost no concentrated germanium ore . Its present in nature is fragmented, a great amount of germanium being found in silicate salt mines and sulfide ores of different kinds of metals and coals . Germanium is also extracted from some copper ores, iron ores and sulphide ores, as well as some silver ores . In addition, there are trace amounts of germanium in rocks, soils, spring water as well as some plants such as ginseng, radix angelica, medlar, aloe, lucid ganoderma, tea leaf . Germanium has been widely used in electronics, optics, chemicals, biomedicines, energy and other high-tech fields.
1.1. Characteristics of germanium metal
The element of germanium falls into IVA group in the periodic table. With a chemical symbol of Ge, it has an atomic number of 32 and atomic mass of 72 . 64 . Its melting point is 937 . 4 °C while its boiling point is 2830 °C, and it has a density of 5.35g/cm-3 and a hardness of 6-6 . 5 . It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid of the carbon group . Germanium is stable in air at room temperature and does not react with water vapor; but at a temperature of between 600-700℃, it is quickly oxidized into germanium dioxide . The content of germanium in the earth's crust is about 0 . 0007% , and there is almost no concentrated germanium ore . Its present in nature is fragmented, a great amount of germanium being found in silicate salt mines and sulfide ores of different kinds of metals and coals . Germanium is also extracted from some copper ores, iron ores and sulphide ores, as well as some silver ores . In addition, there are trace amounts of germanium in rocks, soils, spring water as well as some plants such as ginseng, radix angelica, medlar, aloe, lucid ganoderma, tea leaf . Germanium has been widely used in electronics, optics, chemicals, biomedicines, energy and other high-tech fields.