{"id":15943,"date":"2023-10-17T02:25:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T20:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=15943"},"modified":"2025-04-03T21:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:48:18","slug":"niobium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/niobium\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Niobium?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Niobium:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a\u00a0rare,\u00a0soft,\u00a0malleable,\u00a0ductile,\u00a0gray-white metal.<\/li>\n<li>Atomic symbol: Nb<\/li>\n<li>It has a\u00a0body-centered cubic crystalline structure.<\/li>\n<li>It\u00a0must be placed in a protective atmosphere when processed at even moderate temperatures because it\u00a0tends to react with oxygen, carbon, the halogens, nitrogen, and sulfur.<\/li>\n<li>Melting point:\u00a02,477 degrees Celsius<\/li>\n<li>Boiling point: 4,744 degrees Celsius<\/li>\n<li>In air, an oxide layer forms over it whose\u00a0color depends on its thickness. Shades of\u00a0blue, green, and yellow are typical.<\/li>\n<li>Niobium\u00a0resists corrosion due to the oxide film.<\/li>\n<li>The metal\u00a0starts to oxidize rapidly in the air\u00a0at 200 degrees Celsius.<\/li>\n<li>The metal is\u00a0inert to acids, even to aqua regia at room temperature,\u00a0but is attacked by hot, concentrated acids, and especially by alkalis and oxidizing agents.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0one of the five major refractory metals (metals with very high resistance to heat and wear).<\/li>\n<li>It has the property of becoming\u00a0superconducting at low temperatures.<\/li>\n<li>Sources:\n<ul>\n<li>It is\u00a0not found free in nature but\u00a0in minerals such as columbite and tantalite.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Commercially, niobium is\u00a0extracted by first forming the oxide (Nb2O5). The\u00a0oxide is\u00a0then reduced using carbon or hydrogen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Major Producers:\u00a0Brazil is the world&#8217;s largest supplier, with\u00a0Canada a distant second.<\/li>\n<li>Applications:\n<ul>\n<li>It is used for the\u00a0production of high-temperature-resistant alloys and\u00a0special stainless steels.<\/li>\n<li>It is also used in its pure form to\u00a0make superconducting accelerating structures\u00a0for particle accelerators.<\/li>\n<li>Niobium alloys are\u00a0used in surgical implants because they do not react with human tissue.<\/li>\n<li>Niobium carbide is used in cutting tools.<\/li>\n<li>Niobium-tin and niobium-titanium alloys are\u00a0used as wires for superconducting magnets capable of\u00a0producing exceedingly strong magnetic fields.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are Rare Earth Elements (REE)?<\/h3>\n<p>REE are a set of seventeen elements in the periodic table. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium. REE are all metals, and the group is often referred to as the &#8220;rare earth metals. Although called &#8220;rare&#8221;, they are actually found relatively abundantly in the Earth&#8217;s crust.These metals are very difficult to mine because it is unusual to find them in concentrations high enough for economical extraction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/news\/india\/cabinet-approves-royalty-rates-for-lithium-niobium-rare-earth-elements-11697022554842.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Cabinet approves royalty rates for lithium, niobium, Rare Earth Elements<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Niobium is a rare, soft, malleable, ductile, gray-white metal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}