Tungsten

Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.

A steel-grey metal under standard conditions when uncombined. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its robust physical properties, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the non-alloyed metals and the second highest of all the elements after carbon. Also remarkable is its very high density of 19.3 times that of water. This density is slightly more than that of uranium and 71% more than that of lead. Tungsten with minor amounts of impurities is often brittle and hard, making it difficult to work. However, very pure tungsten is more ductile, and can be cut with a hacksaw.The unalloyed elemental form is used mainly in electrical applications. Tungsten's many alloys have numerous applications, most notably in incandescent light bulb filaments, X-ray tubes (as both the filament and target), and superalloys. Tungsten's hardness and high density give it military applications in penetrating projectiles. Tungsten compounds are most often used industrially as catalysts.

Tungsten is the only metal from the third transition series that is known to occur in biomolecules, and is the heaviest element known to be used by living organisms

Characteristics

Tungsten is worked by forging, drawing, extruding or sintering. Of all metals in pure form, tungsten has the highest melting point (3,422 °C, 6,192 °F), lowest vapour pressure and (at temperatures above 1,650 °C, 3,000 °F) the highest tensile strength. Tungsten has the lowest coefficient of thermal expansion of any pure metal. The low thermal expansion and high melting point and strength of tungsten are due to strong covalent bonds formed between tungsten atoms by the 5d electrons. Alloying small quantities of tungsten with steel greatly increases its toughness.

Elemental tungsten resists attack by oxygen, acids, and alkalis. The most common formal oxidation state of tungsten is +6, but it exhibits all oxidation states from −2 to +6. Tungsten typically combines with oxygen to form the yellow tungstic oxide, WO3, which dissolves in aqueous alkaline solutions to form tungstate ions, WO2−4. Tungsten carbides (W2C and WC) are produced by heating powdered tungsten with carbon and are some of the hardest carbides, with a melting point of 2770 °C for WC and 2780 °C for W2C. WC is an efficient electrical conductor, but W2C is less so. Tungsten carbide behaves similarly to unalloyed tungsten and is resistant to chemical attack, although it reacts strongly with chlorine to form tungsten hexachloride (WCl6).

Aqueous tungstate solutions are noted for the formation of heteropoly acids and polyoxometalate anions under neutral and acidic conditions. As tungstate is progressively treated with acid, it first yields the soluble, metastable "paratungstate A" anion, W7O6–24, which over time converts to the less soluble "paratungstate B" anion, H2W12O10–42. Further acidification produces the very soluble metatungstate anion, H2W12O6–40, after which equilibrium is reached. The metatungstate ion exists as a symmetric cluster of twelve tungsten-oxygen octahedra known as the Keggin anion. Many other polyoxometalate anions exist as metastable species. The inclusion of a different atom such as phosphorus in place of the two central hydrogens in metatungstate produces a wide variety of heteropoly acids, such as phosphotungstic acid H3PW12O40.

Value

The base value of each unit of ranges between 1 and 30Ð per unit, with up to 3 units being found at any one time.

Presence on Mars: Rare