Bismuth

Jai Ganesh · Today 16:22:46

Bismuth

Gist

Bismuth (symbol Bi, atomic number 83) is a brittle, silvery-white post-transition metal with low toxicity that is used in alloys, electronics, pharmaceuticals (like Pepto-Bismol), and paints. Recovered as a by-product of other metals, bismuth's unique bismuth crystal structure and chemical properties lead to its common use in various industrial and medical applications.

Bismuth finds its main uses in pharmaceuticals, atomic fire alarms and sprinkler systems, solders and other alloys and pigments for cosmetics, glass and ceramics.

Summary

Bismuth is a chemical element; it has symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs naturally, and its sulfide and oxide forms are important commercial ores. The free element is 86% as dense as lead. It is a brittle metal with a silvery-white color when freshly produced. Surface oxidation generally gives samples of the metal a somewhat rosy cast. Further oxidation under heat can give bismuth a vividly iridescent appearance due to thin-film interference. Bismuth is both the most diamagnetic element and one of the least thermally conductive metals known.

Bismuth was formerly understood to be the element with the highest atomic mass whose nuclei do not spontaneously decay. However, in 2003 it was found to be very slightly radioactive. The metal's only primordial isotope, bismuth-209, undergoes alpha decay with a half-life roughly a billion times longer than the estimated age of the universe.

Bismuth metal has been known since ancient times. Before modern analytical methods bismuth's metallurgical similarities to lead and tin often led it to be confused with those metals. The etymology of "bismuth" is uncertain. The name may come from mid-sixteenth-century Neo-Latin translations of the German words weiße Masse or Wismuth, meaning 'white mass', which were rendered as bisemutum or bisemutium.

Bismuth compounds account for about half the global production of bismuth. They are used in cosmetics; pigments; and a few pharmaceuticals, notably bismuth subsalicylate, used to treat diarrhea. Bismuth's unusual propensity to expand as it solidifies is responsible for some of its uses, as in the casting of printing type.[ Bismuth, when in its elemental form, has unusually low toxicity for a heavy metal. As the toxicity of lead and the cost of its environmental remediation became more apparent during the 20th century, suitable bismuth alloys have gained popularity as replacements for lead. Presently, around a third of global bismuth production is dedicated to needs formerly met by lead.

Details

Bismuth (Bi) is the most metallic and the least abundant of the elements in the nitrogen group (Group 15 [Va] of the periodic table). Bismuth is hard, brittle, lustrous, and coarsely crystalline. It can be distinguished from all other metals by its colour—gray-white with a reddish tinge.

Element Properties:

atomic number : 83
atomic weight : 208.98040
melting point : 271.3 °C (520.3 °F)
boiling point : 1,560 °C (2,840 °F)
density : 9.747 gram/{cm}^{3} at 20 °C (68 °F)
oxidation states : +3, +5

History

Bismuth evidently was known in very early times, since it occurs in the native state as well as in compounds. For a long period, however, it was not clearly recognized as a separate metal, having been confused with such metals as lead, antimony, and tin. Miners during the Middle Ages apparently believed bismuth to be a stage in the development of silver from baser metals and were dismayed when they uncovered a vein of the metal thinking they had interrupted the process. In the 15th-century writings of the German monk Basil Valentine this element is referred to as Wismut, a term that may have been derived from a German phrase meaning “white mass.” In any case it was Latinized to bisemutum by the mineralogist Georgius Agricola, who recognized its distinctive qualities and described how to obtain it from its ores. Bismuth was accepted as a specific metal by the middle of the 18th century, and works on its chemistry were published in 1739 by the German chemist Johann Heinrich Pott and in 1753 by the Frenchman Claude-François Geoffroy.

Occurrence and distribution

Bismuth is about as abundant as silver, contributing about 2 × {10}^{-5} weight percent of Earth’s crust. Its cosmic abundance is estimated as about one atom to every 7,000,000 atoms of silicon. It occurs both native and in compounds. In the native state, it is found in veins associated with lead, zinc, tin, and silver ores in Bolivia, Canada, England, and Germany. Its naturally occurring compounds are chiefly the oxide (bismite or bismuth ochre, Bi2O3), the sulfide (bismuthinite or bismuth glance, Bi2S3), and two carbonates (bismutite, (BiO)2CO3, and bismutosphaerite). Commercial bismuth, however, is produced largely as a by-product in the smelting and refining of lead, tin, copper, silver, and gold ores. Thus, it comes—for example—from tungsten ores in South Korea, lead ores in Mexico, copper ores in Bolivia, and both lead and copper ores in Japan. By the early 21st century, however, China was leading the world in both the mining and the refining of bismuth. Pure bismuth can also be obtained by reducing the oxide with carbon or by roasting the sulfide in the presence of charcoal and metallic iron to remove the sulfur.

Bismuth forms only one stable isotope, that of mass 209. A large number of radioactive isotopes are known, most of them very unstable.

Commercial production and uses

Bismuth is volatile at high temperature, but it usually remains with the other metals after smelting operations. Electrolytic refining of copper leaves bismuth behind as one component of the anode sludge. Separation of bismuth from lead by the Betterton–Kroll process involves the formation of high-melting calcium or magnesium bismuthide (Ca3Bi2 or Mg3Bi2), which separates and can be skimmed off as dross. The dross may be chlorinated to remove the magnesium or calcium, and finally the entrained lead. Treatment with sodium hydroxide then produces highly pure bismuth. An alternative separation, the Betts process, involves electrolytic refining of lead bullion (containing bismuth and other impurities) in a solution of lead fluosilicate and free fluosilicic acid, bismuth being recovered from the anode sludge. Separation of bismuth from its oxide or carbonate ores can be effected by leaching with concentrated hydrochloric acid. Dilution then precipitates the oxychloride, BiOCl. This, on heating with lime and charcoal, produces metallic bismuth.

Metallic bismuth is used principally in alloys, to many of which it imparts its own special properties of low melting point and expansion on solidification (like water and antimony). Bismuth is thus a useful component of type-metal alloys, which make neat, clean castings; and it is an important ingredient of low-melting alloys, called fusible alloys, which have a large variety of applications, especially in fire-detection equipment. A bismuth–manganese alloy has been found effective as a permanent magnet. Small concentrations of bismuth improve the machinability of aluminum, steel, stainless steels, and other alloys and suppress the separation of graphite from malleable cast iron. Thermoelectric devices for refrigeration make use of bismuth telluride, Bi2Te3, and bismuth selenide, Bi2Se3. Liquid bismuth has been used as a fuel carrier and coolant in the generation of nuclear energy.

The principal chemical application of bismuth is in the form of bismuth phosphomolybdate (BiPMo12O40), which is an effective catalyst for the air oxidation of propylene and ammonia to acrylonitrile. The latter is used to make acrylic fibres, paints, and plastics. Pharmaceutical uses of bismuth have been practiced for centuries. It is effective in indigestion remedies and antisyphilitic drugs. Slightly soluble or insoluble salts are utilized in the treatment of wounds and gastric disorders and in outlining the alimentary tract during X-ray examination, and bismuth is sometimes injected in the form of finely divided metal, or as suspensions of its insoluble salts. Substantial quantities of the oxychloride, BiOCl, have been used to impart a pearlescent quality to lipstick, nail polish, and eye shadow.

Properties and reactions

Bismuth is a rather brittle metal with a somewhat pinkish, silvery metallic lustre. Bismuth is the most diamagnetic of all metals (i.e., it exhibits the greatest opposition to being magnetized). It is hard and coarsely crystalline. It undergoes a 3.3 percent expansion when it solidifies from the molten state. Its electrical conductivity is very poor, but somewhat better in the liquid state than in the solid. With respect to thermal conductivity, it is the poorest of all metals except mercury.

Although it does not tarnish in air at ordinary temperatures, bismuth forms an oxide coating when heated and is oxidized rapidly at its boiling point of 1,560 °C. The yellow colour of this oxide distinguishes it from those formed by other metals. At red heat, bismuth reacts with steam, but it is not affected by cold, air-free water; it combines directly with sulfur and with the halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine). The element is not attacked by hydrochloric acid, and only slightly by hot sulfuric acid, but it is rapidly dissolved by either dilute or concentrated nitric acid.

Bismuth atoms have the same electronic structure in their outermost shell as do the other elements of the nitrogen group. They can, therefore, form three single covalent bonds, exhibiting either a +3 or −3 oxidation state. The element has a somewhat lower electronegativity than the others, and its lone pair of electrons is evidently quite inert, causing the +5 state of bismuth to be rare and unstable.

Analytical and physiological chemistry

Bismuth is usually determined gravimetrically, being precipitated and weighed as the phosphate or the oxychloride, BiOCl. To produce the latter, a suitable amount of hydrochloric acid is added to a nitric acid solution containing the bismuth, and the resulting solution is poured into a large volume of water, causing the oxychloride to precipitate. Volumetric and colorimetric methods of determination are also available.

Bismuth is relatively nontoxic, the least so of the heavy metals. It is generally not an industrial hazard. Although bismuth and certain of its compounds find considerable therapeutic use, some authorities recommend that other remedies be substituted. Soluble inorganic bismuth compounds are toxic.

Additional Information:

Appearance

Bismuth is a high-density, silvery, pink-tinged metal.

Uses

Bismuth metal is brittle and so it is usually mixed with other metals to make it useful. Its alloys with tin or cadmium have low melting points and are used in fire detectors and extinguishers, electric fuses and solders.

Bismuth oxide is used as a yellow pigment for cosmetics and paints, while bismuth(III) chloride oxide (BiClO) gives a pearly effect to cosmetics. Basic bismuth carbonate is taken in tablet or liquid form for indigestion as ‘bismuth mixture’.

Biological role

Bismuth has no known biological role, and is non-toxic.

Natural abundance

Bismuth occurs as the native metal, and in ores such as bismuthinite and bismite. The major commercial source of bismuth is as a by-product of refining lead, copper, tin, silver and gold ores.

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Bismuth

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