Germanium

Germanium Latest News

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. 

About Germanium

• It is a chemical element between silicon and tin in Group 14 (IVa) of the periodic table.
• It has the chemical symbol Ge and the atomic number 32.
• It is a silvery-gray metalloid, intermediate in properties between the metals and the nonmetals. 
• It has a diamondlike crystalline structure, and it is similar in chemical and physical properties to silicon. 
• Germanium is stable in air and water and is unaffected by alkalis and acids, except nitric acid.
• Although germanium was not discovered until 1886 by Clemens Winkler, a German chemist, its existence, properties, and position in the periodic system had been predicted in 1871 by the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev, who called the hypothetical element ekasilicon. 
• Germanium did not become economically significant until after 1945, when its properties as a semiconductor were recognized as being of value in electronics. 
  • It remains of primary importance in the manufacture of transistors and of components for devices such as rectifiers and photocells.
• It is widely distributed in nature but is too reactive to occur free. 
• Germanium ores are rare. They are found in small quantities as the minerals germanite and argyrodite.
• Today, germanium is extracted as a by-product of zinc production and from coal fly ash. 
• It is estimated that 75% of worldwide production of germanium is sourced from zinc ores, mainly the zinc sulfide mineral sphalerite, and 25% from coal.
• Major Producers: 
  • The major worldwide producer of germanium is China, responsible for around 60% of total production. 
  • The remaining production of germanium comes from Canada, Finland, Russia, and the United States.

Germanium FAQs

Q1: Is germanium a conductor?

Ans: Germanium is not a good conductor; it is a semiconductor.

Q2: Is germanium toxic to humans?

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Ans: Germanium compounds are relatively less toxic compared to other metalloids and metals

Q3: Germanium is mostly extracted as a by-product of which metal?

Ans: Zinc

Source: TH