5500
7p 7s
5000
6d
4500
6p
4000
6s
3500
5f
3000
5d 5p
2500
5s 4f
G Tantalum evaporation boat.
1000 500 0
3s
3p
3d
4s
4p
1500
4d
2000
H Tantalum skull plate.
State of Matter
E Common tantalum capacitors.
G Pressed tantalum powder capacitor cores.
Atomic Emission Spectrum
F Heavy solid tantalum slab, enough for thousands of capacitors.
tantalum filaments, which were so much more reliable than the older carbonfilament bulbs that the Titanic’s night lights could actually be left on at night. But all the early diversity in lightbulb filament material—including carbon, tantalum, osmium (76), even platinum (78)—fell by the wayside when it become possible to manufacture tungsten wire, the best (and, with luck, the last) incandescent bulb filament material.
2p
that have had boycotts organized against them. People are urged to boycott the other one, carbon (6), because sales of “conflict diamonds” support nasty local wars in the regions where the diamonds are mined. Tantalum is opposed for a similar reason, with the added motivation that it is mined in areas where endangered gorillas live: Gorillas are dying to fund guerilla wars, and all for tantalum. How do you boycott an element as obscure as tantalum? Cell phones! Tantalum is not limited in applications, just in name recognition. Not just cell phones, but computers, talking dolls, medical equipment, radios, video games—virtually every device that contains digital electronics of any kind uses tantalum capacitors. The advantages of tantalum capacitors over other types include their small size, their high capacity, and their high-frequency response. Digital circuits generate lots of high-frequency electrical noise, which can leak from one circuit to another through power and signal connections. Tantalum capacitors are especially effective at absorbing and dampening these noise spikes before they can cause trouble. So in order to boycott tantalum, all you have to do is boycott . . . well, pretty much everything invented since 1982. If it weren’t for tungsten (74), you might also have to boycott lightbulbs. In the early history of incandescent light, tantalum-filament bulbs were commercially available. Indeed, among the many sophisticated technological advances advertised for the luxury liner Titanic was that its electric lights had
Electron Filling Order
Tantalum is one of two elements
Atomic Weight 180.9479 Density 16.650 Atomic Radius 200pm Crystal Structure
E Antique tantalumfilament lightbulb.
1s 2s
Tantalum
Elemental
167 US Elements 162-185-khl.indd 167
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