Fun/Interesting Facts About Tantalum
- Tantalum has the third highest melting point of any element
- It is highly conductive of both heat and electricity
- It is very strong and has the ability to resist corrosion even by very strong acids
- Tantalum is sometimes found in niobium, and when it is it becomes chemically combined to find either tantalite, or columbite
- Tantalite and columbite are almost identical, and this is what caused the early disputes that argued whether they were the same thing or not
- Due to tantalum's high density, gravitational separation is the most common way to extract it from other elements or minerals
- Tantalum has 2 naturally occurring isotopes, one of which is stable
- Tantalum's unstable isotope, Ta-180m, is the scarcest isotope in the universe
- Most commercially sold tantalum is in a powdered form for building electronic devices
- Tantalum is one of the 5 major refractory metals
- Tantalum can be drawn out into a fine wire, which can be used as a filament for evaporating metals such as alluminum