Where is niobium on the periodic table

Niobium is a shiny, white, soft, and ductile metal, and takes on a bluish cast when exposed to air at room temperatures for a long time. Niobium is used in arc-welding rods for stabilized grades of stainless steel. Thousands of pounds of niobium have been used in advanced air frame systems such as were used in the Gemini space program.

The element has superconductive properties; superconductive magnets have been made with Nb-Zr wire, which retains its superconductivity in strong magnetic fields. This type of application offers hope of direct large-scale generation of electric power. Get help. Privacy Policy. Password recovery. Learning Chemistry. Home Element Metal Niobium. Lithium metal Lithium Li , atomic number 3, the lightest solid chemical element of Group 1 IA in the periodic table or alkali metal family has Privacy Policy About Contact.

Properties of Niobium. Molar heat capacity. Chemical properties. Pauling scale — 1. Complex compounds of Niobium. K5[Nb CN 8 ]. The RSC makes no representations whatsoever about the suitability of the information contained in the documents and related graphics published on this Site for any purpose.

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Jump to main content. Periodic Table. Glossary Allotropes Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes.

Discovery date Discovered by Charles Hatchett Origin of the name The name comes from Niobe from Greek mythology, who was the daughter of king Tantalus. This was chosen because of niobium's chemical similarity to tantalum Allotropes. Glossary Group A vertical column in the periodic table.

Fact box. Glossary Image explanation Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements. Appearance The description of the element in its natural form. Biological role The role of the element in humans, animals and plants. Natural abundance Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Uses and properties.

Image explanation. The propeller blades in the icon reflect the use of niobium and its alloys in the aviation industry. A silvery metal that is very resistant to corrosion due to a layer of oxide on its surface. Niobium is used in alloys including stainless steel. It improves the strength of the alloys, particularly at low temperatures. Alloys containing niobium are used in jet engines and rockets, beams and girders for buildings and oil rigs, and oil and gas pipelines.

This element also has superconducting properties. Niobium oxide compounds are added to glass to increase the refractive index, which allows corrective glasses to be made with thinner lenses. Biological role.

Natural abundance. The main source of this element is the mineral columbite. This mineral also contains tantalum and the two elements are mined together. Columbite is found in Canada, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria and elsewhere. Some niobium is also produced as a by-product of tin extraction. Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History.

When examining minerals in the British Museum in , Charles Hatchett was intrigued by a specimen labelled columbite. He suspected it contained a new metal, and he was right. He heated a sample with potassium carbonate, dissolved the product in water, added acid and got a precipitate. However, further treatment did not produce the element itself, although he named it columbium, and so it was known for many years.

Others doubted columbium, especially after the discovery of tantalum which happened the following year. These metals occur together in nature, and are difficult to separate. In the German chemist Heinrich Rose proved that columbite contained both elements and he renamed columbium niobium. A sample of the pure metal was produced in by Christian Blomstrand who reduced niobium chloride by heating it with hydrogen gas. Atomic data. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom.

Oxidation states and isotopes. Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity.

Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves. Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators.

Supply risk. Relative supply risk 7. Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Niobium Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

This week, an element with some contradiction, as its namesake weeps, yet its chemistry is impassive. Here's Jon Steed:. What an evocative name! The element was christened after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology. Niobium is a shiny, white metal that typically forms a film on its surface when exposed to air, turning shades of blue, green, or yellow, according to Chemicool. It has a wide range of uses from use in hypoallergenic jewelry to jet engines to superconducting magnets.

Niobium has a convoluted history. John Winthrop discovered an ore in Massachusetts in and sent it to England. The mineral sat in the British Museum collection for years until it was analyzed in by Charles Hatchett. He discovered a new element in the ore and named it columbium after Columbia, the poetic name for America.