What is Germanium?
- Germanium is a chemical element placed between silicon and tin in Group 14 of the periodic table.
- A hard, grey-white, lustrous and brittle metalloid acts in properties between metals and nonmetals.
- The element is mostly distributed in nature, but it’s too reactive to occur free.
- Germanium has a diamond-like structure and its properties are very similar to the physical and chemical properties of silicon.
- It is stable in air and water and does not get affected by alkalis and acids except nitric acid.
- There are primary minerals which include germanite, argyrodite, Canfield site, and renierite. Only renierite and germanite have been used as commercial sources for the element.
- Some of the trace quantities of germanium are found in various zinc blended minerals– some in sulfidic ores of arsenic and copper & some coals.
Chemical Properties of Germanium
| Group | 14 | Melting point | 938.25°C, 1720.85°F, 1211.4 K |
| Period | 4 | Boiling point | 2833°C, 5131°F, 3106 K |
| Block | p | Density (g cm−3) | 5.3234 |
| Atomic number | 32 | Relative atomic mass | 72.630 |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 73Ge, 74Ge |
| Electron configuration | [Ar]3d10 4s2 4p2 | CAS number | 7440-56-4 |
| ChemSpider ID | 4885606 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Isotopes of Germanium
- There are five types of natural isotopes found in Germanium, such as 70Ge, 72Ge , 73Ge, 74Ge, and 76Ge .
- 74Ge is the most common isotope, having a natural abundance of approximately 36%.
- 76Ge is the least common with a natural abundance of approximately 7%.
Production of Germanium
- Germanium found in the Earth’s crust is approximately 1.6 ppm.
- Few minerals like argyrodite, briartit, germanite, renierite and sphalerite contain appreciable amounts of germanium.
- Germanium is mostly produced from the ore sphalerite. The ore is converted to the germanium oxides by heating under air in a process known as roasting. The oxide of germanium is reduced by using carbon form germanium.
GeO2 + C → Ge + CO2
Uses of Germanium
- Germanium acts as a semiconductor, commonly doped with arsenic and other elements and used as a transistor in different electronic applications.
- The oxides of Germanium includes a high index of dispersion and refraction which makes it perfect to use in wide-angle camera lenses & objective lenses for microscopes.
- It is also used as an alloying agent in contact with fluorescent lamps and as a catalyst.
- As both the germanium and germanium oxides are transparent to infrared radiation, these are used in infrared spectroscopes.