What is the hardest metal on earth. The hardest metal - what is it like?
If strength is generally understood as the ability of solids to resist destruction and maintain the shape of a product, then the following metals can be classified as super-strong and durable metals.
Name titanium was appropriated by Martin Klaproth, a German researcher who discovered a new metal not for its chemical qualities, but in honor of the mythological heroes of the children of the earth - the titans.
The occurrence of titanium in nature is in 10th place; it is most concentrated in minerals. Without this metal, the latest discoveries in the field of rocket, ship and aircraft construction would not be possible. Titanium is used in all areas of industry, in the manufacture of medical implants and body armor in the food industry and agriculture.
2nd place 
Light gray tungsten , literally translated as wolf's cream, is the most refractory metal, so it is indispensable in the manufacture of heat-resistant surfaces and products. The filament in a regular light bulb is made of tungsten filament.
That metal is used in ballistic missiles, in the manufacture of shells and bullets, and in gyroscopic high-speed rotors.
3rd place 
Tantalum It is almost impossible to modify, because it begins to melt at a temperature of 3015 degrees Celsius, and boils at a boiling point of 5300 degrees. It is impossible for an ordinary person to even imagine such heat. The bluish-gray metal is the most indispensable in modern medicine; wire and sheets are made from it to cover damaged bones.
Opened in 1817 molybdenum, steel-gray metal is practically never found in its pure form. The refractoriness of this metal is amazing, the melting point of which exceeds 2620 degrees. Molybdenum has found its greatest use in the military industry, where gun and armor steels are made.
5th place 
Aviation and mechanical engineering, nuclear energy and astronautics use niobium, a metal very similar in its properties to tantalum. Niobium is practically unaffected by any substances, neither salts nor acids, it is difficult to melt and difficult to oxidize, which is what makes the unique metal so in demand.
6th place 
The heaviest metal on earth iridium It has the most durable anti-corrosion properties; even aqua regia cannot melt it. Adding iridium to other alloys increases their ability to resist corrosion.
7th place 
Beryllium is one of the rare metals that are mined in the earth. Its unique qualities, such as high thermal conductivity and fire resistance, have made this metal indispensable in the manufacture of nuclear reactors. Beryllium alloys rightfully occupy a leading place in the aerospace and aviation industries.
8th place 
Light blue chrome , which is also one of the strongest metals, due to its unique properties, when added to steel alloys, it makes them harder and more corrosion-resistant. Chrome parts have a beautiful appearance that does not change over time.
9th place 
The Saxons treat their legends with care; the name of the hero of one of them, Kobold, was immortalized in the name of the metal - cobalt . Very often, when mining ore, seekers mistook the gray-pink metal for silver.
Refractory metal, as an additive, increases the heat resistance, hardness and wear resistance of steel. Thanks to its unique qualities, cobalt is indispensable in metal-cutting machines.
Hafnium – a light gray metal with unique qualities is mined from zirconium ore. Solid, refractory hafnium has a unique feature; the fact is that its temperature-capacity dependence is anomalous and does not fall under any laws of physics.
Hafnium is used in nuclear energy and optics, for strengthening various alloys and making glass for X-rays; it is difficult to imagine military production without it.
Titan was discovered at the end of the 18th century by independent scientists from England and Germany. In the periodic table of elements D.I. Mendeleev was located in group 4 with atomic number 22. For quite a long time, scientists did not see any prospects in titanium, since it was very fragile. But in 1925, Dutch scientists I. de Boer and A. Van Arkel were able to obtain pure titanium in the laboratory, which became a real breakthrough in all industries.
Properties of titanium
Pure titanium turned out to be incredibly technological. It has ductility, low density, high specific strength, corrosion resistance, and strength when exposed to high temperatures. Titanium is twice as strong as steel and six times as strong. Titanium is indispensable in supersonic aviation. After all, at an altitude of 20 km it develops a speed that exceeds the speed of sound three times. In this case, the temperature of the aircraft body heats up to 300°C. Only titanium alloys can withstand such conditions.
Titanium shavings are a fire hazard, and titanium dust can generally explode. During an explosion, the flash point can reach 400°C.
The most durable on the planet
Titanium is so light and strong that its alloys are used to make aircraft and submarine hulls, body armor and tank armor, and are also used in nuclear technology. Another remarkable property of this metal is its passive effect on living tissue. Only osteoprostheses are made from. Semi-precious stones and jewelry are made from some titanium compounds.
The chemical industry has also not ignored titanium. In many aggressive environments, metal does not corrode. Titanium dioxide is used to make white paint, in the production of plastic and paper, and as a food additive E171.
On the scale of metal hardness, titanium is second only to platinum metals and tungsten.
Distribution and stocks
Titanium is a fairly common metal. It ranks tenth in this indicator. The earth's crust contains about 0.57% titanium. At the moment, scientists know over a hundred minerals that contain metal. Its deposits are scattered almost all over the world. Titanium mining is carried out in China, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine, India and Japan.
Progress
For several years now, scientists have been conducting research on a new metal, which was called “liquid metal”. This invention claims to be the new, most durable metal on the planet. But it has not yet been obtained in solid form.
Our world is full of amazing facts that are interesting to many people. The properties of various metals are no exception. Among these elements, of which there are 94 in the world, there are the most ductile and malleable, and there are also those with high electrical conductivity or a high resistance coefficient. This article will talk about the hardest metals, as well as their unique properties.
Iridium ranks first in the list of metals that are distinguished by the greatest hardness. It was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century by the English chemist Smithson Tennant. Iridium has the following physical properties:
- has a silvery-white color;
- its melting point is 2466 o C;
- boiling point – 4428 o C;
- resistance – 5.3·10−8Ohm·m.
Because iridium is the hardest metal on the planet, it is difficult to process. But it is still used in various industrial fields. For example, it is used to make small balls that are used in pen nibs. Iridium is used to make components for space rockets, some parts for cars, and more.
Very little iridium occurs in nature. Findings of this metal are a kind of evidence that meteorites fell in the place where it was discovered. These cosmic bodies contain significant amounts of metal. Scientists believe that our planet is also rich in iridium, but its deposits are closer to the Earth's core.
The second position on our list goes to ruthenium. The discovery of this inert silvery metal belongs to the Russian chemist Karl Klaus, which was made in 1844. This element belongs to the platinum group. It is a rare metal. Scientists have been able to establish that there is approximately 5 thousand tons of ruthenium on the planet. It is possible to extract approximately 18 tons of metal per year.
Due to its limited quantity and high cost, ruthenium is rarely used in industry. It is used in the following cases:
- a small amount of it is added to titanium to improve corrosion properties;
- its alloy with platinum is used to make electrical contacts that are highly resistant;
- ruthenium is often used as a catalyst for chemical reactions.
A metal called tantalum, discovered in 1802, takes third place on our list. It was discovered by the Swedish chemist A. G. Ekeberg. For a long time it was believed that tantalum is identical to niobium. But the German chemist Heinrich Rose managed to prove that these are two different elements. Scientist Werner Bolton from Germany was able to isolate tantalum in its pure form in 1922. This is a very rare metal. The largest deposits of tantalum ore were discovered in Western Australia.
Due to its unique properties, tantalum is a highly sought-after metal. It is used in various fields:
- in medicine, tantalum is used to make wire and other elements that can hold tissue together and even act as a bone substitute;
- alloys with this metal are resistant to aggressive environments, which is why they are used in the manufacture of aerospace equipment and electronics;
- tantalum is also used to create energy in nuclear reactors;
- the element is widely used in the chemical industry.
Chromium is one of the hardest metals. It was discovered in Russia in 1763 in a deposit in the Northern Urals. It has a bluish-white color, although there are cases where it is considered a black metal. Chrome cannot be called a rare metal. The following countries are rich in its deposits:
- Kazakhstan;
- Russia;
- Madagascar;
- Zimbabwe.
There are chromium deposits in other countries as well. This metal is widely used in various branches of metallurgy, science, mechanical engineering and others.
The fifth position in the list of the hardest metals goes to beryllium. Its discovery belongs to the chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin from France, which was made in 1798. This metal has a silvery-white color. Despite its hardness, beryllium is a brittle material, which makes it very difficult to process. It is used to create high-quality loudspeakers. It is used to create jet fuel and refractory materials. The metal is widely used in the creation of aerospace technology and laser systems. It is also used in nuclear energy and in the manufacture of X-ray equipment.
The list of the hardest metals also includes osmium. It is an element belonging to the platinum group, and its properties are similar to iridium. This refractory metal is resistant to aggressive environments, has a high density, and is difficult to process. It was discovered by the scientist Smithson Tennant from England in 1803. This metal is widely used in medicine. Elements of pacemakers are made from it, and it is also used to create the pulmonary valve. It is also widely used in the chemical industry and for military purposes.
The transition silver metal rhenium takes the seventh position on our list. The assumption about the existence of this element was made by D.I. Mendeleev in 1871, and chemists from Germany managed to discover it in 1925. Just 5 years after this, it was possible to establish the extraction of this rare, durable and refractory metal. At that time, it was possible to obtain 120 kg of rhenium per year. Now the amount of annual metal production has increased to 40 tons. It is used for the production of catalysts. It is also used to make electrical contacts that can self-clean.
Silver-gray tungsten is not only one of the hardest metals, it also leads in refractoriness. It can only be melted at a temperature of 3422 o C. Thanks to this property, it is used to create incandescent elements. Alloys made from this element have high strength and are often used for military purposes. Tungsten is also used to make surgical instruments. It is also used to make containers in which radioactive materials are stored.
One of the hardest metals is uranium. It was discovered in 1840 by the chemist Peligo. D.I. Mendeleev made a great contribution to the study of the properties of this metal. The radioactive properties of uranium were discovered by the scientist A. A. Becquerel in 1896. Then a chemist from France called the detected metal radiation Becquerel rays. Uranium is often found in nature. The countries with the largest deposits of uranium ore are Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The final place in the top ten hardest metals goes to titanium. For the first time this element was obtained in its pure form by the chemist J. Ya. Berzelius from Sweden in 1825. Titanium is a lightweight silver-white metal that is highly durable and resistant to corrosion and mechanical stress. Titanium alloys are used in many branches of mechanical engineering, medicine and the chemical industry.
Glass made of metal
Specialists from the California Institute of Technology have obtained a material that is unique in its properties - this is the strongest alloy to date - “metal glass”. The uniqueness of the new alloy is that metallic glass is made of metal, but has the internal structure of glass. Today, scientists are figuring out what exactly gives the alloy such unusual properties and how they can be introduced into alloys made from less expensive materials.
The amorphous structure of glass, unlike the crystalline structure of metal, is not protected from the propagation of cracks, which explains the fragility of glass. Metal glasses also have the same disadvantage, which also break quite easily, forming shear bands that develop into cracks.
Alloy properties
Specialists from the Californian Institute noticed that the appearance of a large number of shear bands provides high resistance to the development of cracks, due to which the opposite effect is achieved: the material bends without collapsing. It is precisely this material, the energy of producing shear bands that is much less than the energy required to turn them into cracks, that they created. “By mixing five elements, we ensured that when cooled, the material “does not know” which structure to adopt and chooses an amorphous one,” explained study participant R. Ritchie.
Metal glass
The most durable alloy - metal glass - consists of noble palladium, silicon, phosphorus, germanium with a small addition of silver (formula: Pd79Ag3.5P6Si9.5Ge2).
The new alloy showed itself in tests as a combination of mutually exclusive properties - strength and endurance at a level not previously seen in any other material. As a result, the new metallic glass combines the hardness of glass with the crack resistance of metals. Moreover, the level of rigidity and strength is within reach.
Use of material
For structural metal, the research carried out has significantly pushed back the limits of load tolerance. But, according to scientists’ forecasts, the most durable alloy may not be widely used, due to the rarity and high cost of its main component, palladium. However, developers have reported possible use of this material in medical implants (for example, for intramaxillary prostheses), as well as parts in the automotive or aerospace industries.
Today we will look at the strongest metals in the world and discuss their properties. And titanium opens the “strength rating”.
Not the most durable?
The name of the metal presumably comes from the name of the ancient Greek hero Titan. Therefore, we associate this metal with indestructibility. Many consider titanium to be the strongest metal in the world. However, in reality this is far from the case.
Pure titanium was first obtained in 1925. The new material immediately attracted attention due to a number of properties. Titanium has begun to be very actively used in the industrial sector.
Today, titanium is in 10th place among natural metals in terms of prevalence. The earth's crust contains about 700 million tons. That is, the current raw materials will last for another 150 years.
Titanium has excellent properties. It is a lightweight and durable metal that is resistant to corrosion. It can be easily heat treated and has a wide range of applications. It interacts with other elements of the periodic table only when heated. Found naturally in rutile and ilmenite ores. Pure titanium is obtained by sintering ore with chlorine.
It is able to withstand enormous loads. The metal is distinguished by its high strength and impact resistance. It is used in the manufacture of vehicles, missiles and even submarines. Titanium can withstand pressure even at great depths.
It is also popular in the medical industry. Prostheses based on it do not interact with body tissues and are not subject to corrosion. But over the years it begins to wear out, which forces you to replace the prosthesis with a new one.
New developments
In 2016, scientists found a way to improve the properties of titanium and make it even more durable. The main goal of the research is to find a more durable material that is compatible with body tissues. And then we remembered gold, which has been used in prosthetics for many years.
The alloy of titanium and gold, after several attempts to find the ideal ratio of components, turned out to be incredibly durable. 4 times stronger than other metals used today for prosthetics.
Tantalum
One of the strongest metals. Named after the ancient Greek god Tantalus, who angered Zeus and was cast into hell. It has a silvery-white color with a bluish tint. It is a characteristic element of granitic and alkaline magma. It is extracted from the mineral coltan, the largest deposits of which are located in Brazil and Africa.
It was opened back in 1802. Then it was considered a variety of columbium, but later it was established that these are two different metals with similar properties. Only 100 years later it was possible to obtain pure tantalum. Its cost today is quite high - $150 per 1 kg of metal.
Tantalum is a refractory metal with a fairly high density. From a chemical point of view, it is stable because it does not dissolve in dilute acids. In powder form, tantalum burns well in air. Used for the manufacture of electrolytic capacitors, heaters in vacuum furnaces. Tantalum capacitors increase the service life of electronic systems to 10-12 years. It is noteworthy that even jewelers have found use for it - they replace platinum.
Strength testing of metals showed that the alloy of tantalum and tungsten has almost one hundred percent strength.
Osmium is the very...
Osmium is another incredibly strong metal. It is also included in the list of the rarest and most expensive. It is present in the earth's crust in minute quantities. It is classified as dispersed, that is, it does not have its own deposits. Therefore, its extraction is accompanied by enormous difficulties.
Osmium belongs to the group of platinum metals. Its cost is about $10,000 per gram. In price it is second only to artificial Californian. It consists of several isotopes that are incredibly difficult to separate. The most popular isotope is osmium-187. Its price per gram reaches up to $200,000!
Osmium is the record holder for density among metals. In addition, it is a high-strength metal. Alloys containing osmium become resistant to corrosion and become stronger and more durable. Metal is also used in its pure form, for example, to make expensive fountain pens, which practically do not wear out and write for years.
Chromium
Chromium, cobalt and tungsten have been known to science since 1913 and are united under the common name - stellites. They remain hard even at temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius.
This metal is mainly found in the deep layers of the Earth. It is also found in stony meteorites, which are considered analogues of our mantle. Only chrome spinels are of industrial value. Many minerals that contain chromium are completely useless. The purest chromium is obtained by electrolysis of concentrated aqueous solutions or electrolysis of chromium sulfate.
Metal in combination with steel significantly enhances its strength and also adds resistance to oxidation. It improves the characteristics of steel without reducing its ductility.
Ruthenium
It belongs to the platinum group and is classified as a noble metal. However, from their list, ruthenium is considered the least noble... It was discovered by the scientist Karl-Ernst Klaus in 1844. It is noteworthy that the professor constantly smelled and tasted the results of his research. Once he even received a burn to his mouth when he tasted one of the ruthenium compounds he discovered.
Its world reserves today are about 5,000 tons. Ruthenium has been studied for a long time, but many of its properties are still unknown. The problem is that no way has yet been found to completely purify ruthenium. The contamination of raw materials prevents the study of its properties. However, doctors are confident that the use of metal in everyday life can increase the incidence of illness among the population. That is why the release of the ruthenium-106 isotope in the Urals caused such a resonance in the press. After all, ruthenium-106 has radioactive properties.
At the same time, its value in 2017 unexpectedly surpassed all platinum metals.
Iridium is the strongest metal
It is iridium that has the highest strength. Yes, it is inferior to osmium in density, but has the highest strength coefficient. It is also called the rarest of metals, but in fact the content of astatine in the earth's crust is even lower.
Iridium was studied very carefully. 70 years later, its main properties - incredible strength and corrosion resistance - have become known throughout the world. Today it is used in many industries. The lion's share of the metal is exploited by the chemical industry. The remainder is distributed among many other areas, including medicine and jewelry. Iridium combined with platinum creates high-quality and very durable jewelry.
