{"id":47947,"date":"2025-05-13T14:53:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T09:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=47947"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:53:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T07:23:39","slug":"germanium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/germanium\/","title":{"rendered":"Germanium"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Germanium Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>India is engaging with the Chinese government to navigate export restrictions on germanium, a critical mineral that is used in manufacturing of semiconductors, fiber optic cables and solar panels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>About Germanium<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a\u00a0<strong>chemical element<\/strong>\u00a0between silicon and tin in\u00a0<strong>Group 14\u00a0<\/strong>(IVa) of the periodic table.<\/li>\n<li>It has the chemical\u00a0<strong>symbol Ge\u00a0<\/strong>and the\u00a0<strong>atomic number 32.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is a\u00a0<strong>silvery-gray metalloid,<\/strong>\u00a0intermediate in properties between the metals and the nonmetals.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It has a\u00a0<strong>diamondlike crystalline structure,<\/strong>\u00a0and it is similar in chemical and physical properties to silicon.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Germanium is\u00a0<strong>stable in air and water<\/strong>\u00a0and is\u00a0<strong>unaffected by alkalis and acids, except nitric acid.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Although germanium was not\u00a0<strong>discovered\u00a0<\/strong>until\u00a0<strong>1886 by Clemens Winkler,<\/strong>\u00a0a German chemist, its existence, properties, and position in the periodic system had been\u00a0<strong>predicted in 1871 by the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev,<\/strong>\u00a0who called the hypothetical element ekasilicon.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Germanium did not<strong>\u00a0become economically significant<\/strong>\u00a0until\u00a0<strong>after 1945, when its properties as a semiconductor were recognized<\/strong>\u00a0as being of value in electronics.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>It remains of primary\u00a0<strong>importance in the manufacture of transistors\u00a0<\/strong>and of components for devices such as\u00a0<strong>rectifiers and photocells.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It is widely distributed in nature but is<strong>\u00a0too reactive to occur free.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Germanium\u00a0<strong>ores are rare<\/strong>. They are found in small quantities as the minerals\u00a0<strong>germanite and argyrodite.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Today, germanium is<strong>\u00a0extracted as a by-product of zinc production<\/strong>\u00a0and f<strong>rom coal fly ash.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is estimated that\u00a0<strong>75% of worldwide production<\/strong>\u00a0of germanium is\u00a0<strong>sourced from zinc ores,<\/strong>\u00a0mainly the zinc sulfide mineral sphalerite, and 25% from coal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Major Producers:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The major worldwide producer of germanium is\u00a0<strong>China<\/strong>, responsible for around\u00a0<strong>60% of total production.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The remaining production of germanium comes from\u00a0<strong>Canada, Finland, Russia,<\/strong>\u00a0and the United States.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Germanium FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1:<\/strong>\u00a0Is germanium a conductor?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Germanium is not a good conductor; it is a semiconductor.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2:<\/strong>\u00a0Is germanium toxic to humans?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Germanium compounds are relatively less toxic compared to other metalloids and metals<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3:<\/strong>\u00a0Germanium is mostly extracted as a by-product of which metal?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Zinc<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-engaged-with-china-on-germanium-export-restrictions-embassy-says\/article69567999.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Germanium is a chemical element in Group 14 (IVa) of the periodic table, positioned between silicon and tin, known for its semiconductor properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[513,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-47947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-germanium","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47947","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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}