Atomic number:  52                 Period Number: 5               Group Number: 16

Tellurium and compounds

A brittle silver-white metalloid, tellurium (Te) is similar to platinum in its rarity; it is exceptionally rare on earth despite being far more common throughout the universe. The most significant source of mineral tellurium, gold telluride, is not commercially viable as a source of tellurium or its compounds. Instead, tellurium is primarily obtained as a by-product of copper and lead production.

Applications of Tellurium and its compounds

Tellurium and its compounds have a relatively sparse selection of direct applications, but through those applications end up in a wide number of fields.

• Metallurgy. Used in the production of various commercial alloys of steel, iron, copper, and lead. In steel or copper alloys, it improves machinability. In lead, it provides corrosion resistance and strength. In cast iron, its used to improve the accuracy of spark emission testing.
• Electronics. Tellurium is used in different fields of electronics to produce semiconductors and optical-electrical materials.
• Solar. Tellurium shows exceptional efficiency in solar cell generators, and a compound of tellurium,
• Optics. Tellurium compounds also have a role in various optical devices and technologies. For example, tellurium suboxide is used as a layer in rewritable optical disks.
• Pigments and refraction. The unique optical properties of tellurium compounds also make them of value in pigments, fiber-optics, and various other applications where refraction is of value.

Available from AHP Materials

As a materials supplier specializing in high-purity elements and compounds, our standard catalog of products is available at purities exceeding 99.999%. Our standard tellurium products include:

• Tellurium metal, 99.99%, 99.999%, 99.9999% and 99.9999%
• Tellurium sulfide, 99.999%, 99.9999%
• Tellurium oxide, 99.999%, 99.9999%
• Tellurium bromide, 99.999%
• Tellurium iodide, 99.999%

To learn more, or to make a request for a custom element or compound, contact AHP Materials today.

Tellurium Resources:

Wikipedia - Basics on Tellurium
Chemicool - Cool way to learn about Tellurium
WebElements - The basic elements of Tellurium
Jefferson Lab - Learning about Tellurium