How is germanium extracted?
Germanium ores are very 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. Both germanium and germanium oxide are transparent to infrared radiation and so are used in infrared spectroscopes.
What is the mineral of germanium?
Germanium like gallium, is rarely found in minerals except in trace amounts. Also like gallium, germanium is obtained as a by-product of mining and processing zinc and copper. Argyrodite and germanite are rare germanium-bearing minerals.
Is germanium a trace element?
Element germanium is a unique metalloid in the carbon group. It is a dietary trace element that naturally presents in human body.
How is sphalerite formed?
Many minable deposits of sphalerite are found where hydrothermal activity or contact metamorphism has brought hot, acidic, zinc-bearing fluids in contact with carbonate rocks. There, sphalerite can be deposited in veins, fractures, and cavities, or it can form as mineralizations or replacements of its host rocks.
What is the ore of germanium?
Today, germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of zinc), though germanium is also recovered commercially from silver, lead, and copper ores. Elemental germanium is used as a semiconductor in transistors and various other electronic devices.
Why is germanium a semiconductor?
Germanium atoms have one more shell than silicon atoms, but what makes for the interesting semiconductor properties is the fact that both have four electrons in the valence shell. As a consequence, both materials readily constitute themselves as crystal lattices. Substituted atoms alter the electrical properties.
What type of semiconductor is germanium?
intrinsic semiconductor
The Germanium element is not doped with any impurities. Hence, it is an intrinsic semiconductor.So, Germanium is an example of an intrinsic semiconductor.
Why is germanium important?
Germanium is an important semiconductor, mainly used in transistors and integrated circuits. They are often made from germanium to which small amounts of arsenic, gallium, or other metals. Germanium forms many compounds.
What is a sphalerite stone?
Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S and an ore of zinc. When the iron content is high, sphalerite is an opaque black variety called marmatite.
Why is germanium a metalloid?
As a metalloid, germanium has both metal and non-metal qualities. It also is a semiconductor, which means it has electrical conductivity between an insulator and a conductor. Germanium does not react with oxygen at room temperatures, but will form germanium dioxide at higher temperatures.
How is germanium dispersed in the Earth’s crust?
Germanium (Ge) is a scarce, but not an extremely rare element in the Earth’s crust (about 1.6 ppm Ge crustal average). Principal geochemical substitutions and mineral associations of Ge include Si, C, Zn, Cu, Fe, Sn, and Ag. Most Ge is dispersed through silicate minerals due to the substitution of Ge4+ for the geochemically similar Si4+.
How are atoms of germanium and silicon related?
Diamond Cubic Crystal Structure. Silicon and Germanium are examples of covalent crystals. In these solids the atoms are linked to each other by covalent bonds rather than by electrostatic forces or by delocalized valence electrons that work in metals almost like a “glue”.
How is the ionic phase of germanium made?
A supported ionic liquid phase (SILP) was developed to selectively recover germanium from iron-rich aqueous solutions. The SILP was synthesised by impregnating Amberlite XAD-16N with Aliquat 336, a mixture of quaternary ammonium salts.
How is germanium used in the real world?
The small bandgap and high mobility of charge carriers make germanium an attractive material in many application fields, from photovoltaics to microelectronics, from optics to radiation detectors [1]. Germanium’s abundance in the Earth’s crust is approximately 1.6×10 -6 [2].