{"id":16690,"date":"2023-11-05T06:52:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T01:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=16690"},"modified":"2025-04-04T22:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T17:08:18","slug":"tellurium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/tellurium\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Tellurium?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Tellurium<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Tellurium is a\u00a0semi-metallic,\u00a0lustrous,\u00a0crystalline,\u00a0brittle,\u00a0silver-white element.<\/li>\n<li>Atomic Number: 52<\/li>\n<li>It has the\u00a0properties of both the\u00a0metals and the\u00a0nonmetals.<\/li>\n<li>It\u00a0forms many compounds corresponding\u00a0to those of sulfur\u00a0and selenium.<\/li>\n<li>When burned in the air, tellurium has a\u00a0greenish-blue flame\u00a0and\u00a0forms tellurium dioxide as a result.<\/li>\n<li>Tellurium is a\u00a0semiconductor material\u00a0and is slightly\u00a0photosensitive.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0one of the only\u00a0elements that readily combine with gold\u00a0(Au).<\/li>\n<li>Sources:\n<ul>\n<li>Tellurium is\u00a0sometimes found free in nature.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>More commonly, it is\u00a0found combined with metals, such as in the minerals\u00a0calaverite (gold telluride, AuTe2)\u00a0and sylvanite (silver-gold telluride).<\/li>\n<li>Commercially, tellurium is\u00a0obtained as a\u00a0byproduct of electrolytic copper refining.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Applications:\n<ul>\n<li>Tellurium is\u00a0alloyed with copper and stainless steel to\u00a0make\u00a0these metals more workable.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0added at very low levels\u00a0to lead to decreases the corrosive action\u00a0of sulfuric acid in batteries and to\u00a0improve the lead\u2019s strength and hardness.<\/li>\n<li>It is used as a\u00a0coloring agent in ceramics.<\/li>\n<li>It is also used in the\u00a0electronics industry, for example,\u00a0with cadmium and mercury to form photosensitive semiconductors.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0used in vulcanizing rubber, and\u00a0in catalysts for petroleum cracking, and in blasting caps for explosives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is a Neutron Star?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A neutron star is an extremely dense and compact celestial object that\u00a0forms after the core of a massive star collapses under its own gravity during a supernova explosion.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is a semiconductor?<\/h3>\n<p>Semiconductors are materials which have a conductivity between conductors (generally metals) and nonconductors or insulators (such as most ceramics). Semiconductors can be pure elements, such as silicon or germanium, or compounds such as gallium arsenide or cadmium selenide. In a process called doping, small amounts of impurities are added to pure semiconductors causing large changes in the conductivity of the material.Semiconductors are an essential component of electronic devices, enabling advances in communications, computing, healthcare, military systems etc.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/a\/evidence-found-for-the-production-of-tellurium-in-neutron-star-mergers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Evidence found for the production of tellurium in neutron star mergers<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tellurium is a semi-metallic, lustrous, crystalline, brittle, silver-white element.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16690","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\/16690","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=16690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}