Beryllium

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Beryllium
General Info
Atomic Symbol	Be
Atomic Number	4
Atomic Weight	9.012182 g/mol9.012 amu
Chemical series	[[Alkaline earth metals]]
Appearance	White-gray metallic
Group, Period, Block	2, 2, S
Electron configuration	1s2 2s2
Electrons per shell	2, 2
CAS number	[7440-41-7]
Physical properties
Phase
Density	g/cm3
Melting point	warning.png“” is no number.
Boiling point	warning.png“” is no number.
Isotopes of Beryllium
iso NA half-life DT DE (MeV) DP is stable with neutrons.
All properties are for STP unless otherwise stated.

Beryllium is an alkaline earth metal. It is the element in the periodic table with the atomic number of four, and the symbol Be. Also, it used to be referred to as glucinium, due to the sweet taste of its salts. Although the salts may taste sweet, they are toxic. It is primarily used as an agent for hardening. It's a gray-white color with a metallic hint to it, and is very strong. It is used in many different things that we use every day. Some examples would be communication satellites, X-ray detections, computer equipment, and even microwave transmissions for safety.

Properties

Beryllium has a white-gray metallic color to it. Out of the light metals, beryillium has one of the highest melting points. It's thermal conductivity is excellent and is also nonmagnetic. It is also very permeable to X-rays. It may not seem like a toxic substance, but the salts in it actually are. When it comes to the speed of sound, beryillium's is 12,500m/s. That makes it greater than in any other element. Steel has a pretty high elasticity, so beryillium's must be very high also because it is 1/3 greater than steel is. Beryillium can avoid being attacked by concentrated nitric acid. It has the ability to scratch glass, and can resist oxidation when exposed to air.

Occurrences

Beryllium ore

There are two really important commercial sources of beryllium. These compounds are beryl and bertrandite. Since it is a metal, it exists in the state of a solid. It is an essential constituent that's about 100 out of about 4000 known minerals. The most important of those are bertrandite, phenakite, chrysoberyl, and beryl. Also, aquamarine and emerald are very precious forms of beryl. Beryllium was not always readily available. But in 1957 it became available to people. By reducing beryllium fluoride with magnesium metal, the production of the metal can be accomplished.

Uses

beryllium metallic

Beryllium is used in many things including nuclear weapons, but primarily used as a hardening agent in alloys. A reason that it would be used for nuclear weapons is because it has great thermal conductivity, and can get really, really hot. It is also used to absorb large amounts of heat. Beryllium foil is used with X-ray detection diagnostics so that it'll filter out light that's visible and only allow the X-rays to be detected. Because of their light weight, good stability over a wide temperature range, and their stiffness, beryllium-copper alloys are sometimes also used in the defense and aerospace industries as the structural materials that are light weight in high-speed aircrafts, communication satellites, missiles, and space vehicles.

Isotopes

A square beryllium foil mounted in a steel case to be used as a window between a vacuum chamber and an X-ray microscope

Main Article: Isotopes

Beryllium has ten isotopes. Although it has ten of them, ⁹Be is the only one that is stable. Beryllium-10, cosmogenic, is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic ray spallation of oxygen and nitrogen. Since it usually exists as a solution at a pH level less than about 5.5, it will sometimes enter into solution and be transported to the Earth's surface. Beryllium drops out of solution as the precipitation quickly becomes more alkaline. Also. the isotope that is known to be the most short-lived, is ¹³Be.

History

The element beryllium was discovered in 1798 by a man named Louis Vauquelin. It was discovered as the oxide that was in beryl and also in emeralds. After it had been discovered, it was then independently isolated in 1828 by Friedrich Wohler and A. A. Bussy. They did this by reacting potassium with beryllium chloride. Beryllium got its name because it comes from the Greek beryllos, beryl, from Prakrit veruliya. It was also once referred to as glucinium because of its sweet taste from the salts.

Health

Although it is used in so many common things, there are also health precautions that people need to be aware of. Beryllium, and the salt that it contains, are actually toxic and potentially carcinogenic. Ways to find beryllium in the body if you think you may have inhaled it or something, it by testing the persons urine and/or blood. The beryllium disease is from being exposed to fumes and/or dust from beryllium metal oxides, metals, ceramics, salts, or alloys. There is also a lifelong risk of developing beryllium disease once you have been exposed to it. There is also Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD). This is a lung disease you get from inhaling beryllium, and is unfortunately incurable. Another disease would be Acute Beryllium Disease (ABD). A few industrial processes that use beryllium and could harm you are: die casting, plastic molding, precision machining, and nuclear applications. It has not been reported that anyone has actually swallowed beryllium to cause harmful effects. Very little beryllium can be absorbed from the stomach and intestines.

Related References

• Beryllium Wikipedia
• Beryllium web elements
• Beryllium scescape

See Also

• Periodic Table of Elements
• Elements
• Atoms
• Chemistry