Where is chromium used

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Jump to main content. Periodic Table. Glossary Allotropes Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes. Discovery date Discovered by Nicholas Louis Vauquelin Origin of the name The name is derived from the Greek 'chroma', meaning colour. Glossary Group A vertical column in the periodic table.

Fact box. Glossary Image explanation Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements. Appearance The description of the element in its natural form. Biological role The role of the element in humans, animals and plants. Natural abundance Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Uses and properties. Image explanation. Chromium plating can be used to give a polished mirror finish to steel.

Chromium-plated car and lorry parts, such as bumpers, were once very common. It is also possible to chromium plate plastics, which are often used in bathroom fittings. However, the waste effluent is toxic so alternatives are being investigated.

Chromium compounds are used as industrial catalysts and pigments in bright green, yellow, red and orange colours. Rubies get their red colour from chromium, and glass treated with chromium has an emerald green colour. Biological role. Chromium is an essential trace element for humans because it helps us to use glucose. However, it is poisonous in excess. We take in about 1 milligram a day.

Natural abundance. Chromium is found mainly in chromite. Chromium metal is usually produced by reducing chromite with carbon in an electric-arc furnace, or reducing chromium III oxide with aluminium or silicon.

Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History. He was intrigued by a bright red mineral that had been discovered in a Siberian gold mine in and was referred to as Siberian red lead. It is now known as crocoite and is a form of lead chromate. Vauquelin analysed it and confirmed that it was a lead mineral. Then he dissolved it in acid, precipitated the lead, filtered this off, and focused his attention on the remaining liquor from which he succeeded in isolating chromium.

Intrigued by the range of colours that it could produce in solution, he named it chromium from the Greek word chroma meaning colour. He then discovered that the green colouration of emeralds was also due to chromium.

Atomic data. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom. Oxidation states and isotopes.

Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves.

Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators.

Supply risk. Relative supply risk 6. Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Chromium Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

This week an element that adds sparkle and value to minerals, through the colourful characteristics of its compounds. In the Western world, the colourful history of chromium begins, suitably enough, at the far end of the visible spectrum with a red-orange mineral that was named "Siberian red lead" by its discoverer, the 18th-century geologist Johann Lehmann. It was in the middle of this surge of discovery, over 35 years after Siberian red lead was first found that the French chemist Louis Vauquelin showed that this mineral, now known as crocoite, contained a previously unknown chemical element.

It took Vauquelin several steps to isolate chromium. First he mixed the crocoite solution with potassium carbonate to precipitate out the lead.

Then he decomposed the lemon yellow chromate intermediate in acid, and finally removed the compounded oxygen by heating with carbon - leaving behind elemental chromium. The name for this new element was debated among his friends, who suggested "chrome" from the Greek word for colour because of the colouration of its compounds. There are several different kinds of chromium that differ in their effects upon organisms.

Chromium enters the air, water and soil in the chromium III and chromium VI form through natural processes and human activities. The main human activities that increase the concentrations of chromium III are steal, leather and textile manufacturing. The main human activities that increase chromium VI concentrations are chemical, leather and textile manufacturing, electro painting and other chromium VI applications in the industry. These applications will mainly increase concentrations of chromium in water.

Through coal combustion chromium will also end up in air and through waste disposal chromium will end up in soils. Most of the chromium in air will eventually settle and end up in waters or soils. Chromium in soils strongly attaches to soil particles and as a result it will not move towards groundwater.

In water chromium will absorb on sediment and become immobile. Only a small part of the chromium that ends up in water will eventually dissolve. Chromium III is an essential element for organisms that can disrupt the sugar metabolism and cause heart conditions, when the daily dose is too low. Chromium VI is mainly toxic to organisms. It can alter genetic materials and cause cancer. Crops contain systems that arrange the chromium-uptake to be low enough not to cause any harm.

But when the amount of chromium in the soil rises, this can still lead to higher concentrations in crops. Acidification of soil can also influence chromium uptake by crops. Plants usually absorb only chromium III. Other chromium-steel alloys are used to make armor plate, safes, ball bearings and cutting tools. Chromium forms many colorful compounds that have industrial uses. Lead chromate PbCrO 4 , also known as chrome yellow, has been used as a yellow pigment in paints.

Chromic oxide Cr 2 O 3 , also known as chrome green, is the ninth most abundant compound in the earth's crust and is a widely used green pigment. Rubies and emeralds also owe their colors to chromium compounds. Potassium dichromate K 2 Cr 2 O 7 is used in the tanning of leather while other chromium compounds are used as mordants, materials which permanently fix dyes to fabrics. However, consuming high levels of chromium in polluted drinking water or inhaling fumes of the heated element can cause ulcers, cancer and other health problems.

French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin first isolated chromium from a bright red mineral called Siberian red lead, now known as lead chromate PbCrO 4 in He mixed the chromium in a variety of solutions and was intrigued by the many colors it produced, thereby naming the element after the Greek word chroma meaning "color.

Chromium is the 21st most common element found in the Earth's crust, but it is not found in its free metal form. Instead, it is principally found in chromite ore, according to Robert E. About 20, tons of chromium metal are produced each year, and there are still about a billion tons of unexploited deposits in Greenland, Canada, and the United States, according to Emsley. Chromium metal is then obtained by heating the chromite ore in the presence of aluminum or silicon, according to the Jefferson Lab.

Chromium is a transition metal in Group 6 on the Periodic Table of Elements. In its pure form, chromium is a silvery, lustrous, hard metal that has a high polish, ideal for electroplating. The most important chromium compounds are the chromates of sodium and potassium, the dichromates, and potassium and ammonium chrome alums, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.