The chemical element vanadium is classed as a transition metal. It was discovered in 1801 by Andres Manuel del Rio.
Vanadium metal with oxide layer. Photo by Tomihahndorf.
Vanadium was discovered in 1801 by the Spanish scientist Andres Manuel del Rio.
Del Rio discovered the new element in brown lead ore (now known to be the mineral vanadinite, Pb5[VO4]3Cl) in New Spain (Mexico).
Del Rio had moved to Mexico as a professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at the Royal School of Mines, Mexico City.
He named his new element panchromo or panchromium meaning 'all of the colors' because of the wide range of colors he had found when investigating the element's salts.
In 1805 the French chemist Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils examined the lead ore and announced that erythronium was actually impure chromium – an analysis which, unfortunately, del Rio accepted.
Nothing more was heard of the element until 1830, when Nils Gabriel Sefström in Stockholm, Sweden, found a new metal in a Swedish iron ore.
The metal was first isolated by Sir Henry E. Roscoe in 1867, in Manchester, England, by reducing vanadium chloride with hydrogen.
Vanadium's discovery in 1801 was initially disregarded because it was thought to be impure chromium, which sits on vanadium's right in the periodic table. Of course, in 1801 the concept of the periodic table had not been born.
Vanadium's colorful oxidation states: +2 is lavender; +3 is green; +4 is blue; +5 is yellow. When he saw these colors, Andres Manuel del Rio first decided to call the new element panchromium meaning 'all of the colors.' You can see these colors being generated by chemical reactions in the short video below. Photo by Steffen Kristensen.
Vanadium is named after the Scandinavian goddess of beauty because of its multiple colors. Watch it change colors as it changes oxidation state with shaking.
Although vanadium is an essential trace element for some creatures a number of its compounds are toxic.
Generally, the higher the oxidation state of vanadium, the more toxic the compound.
Vanadium is a bright white, soft, ductile metal with good structural strength.
Vanadium is resistant to attack by alkalis, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and salt water.
When present in compounds, vanadium exists mostly in the oxidation state V.
The metal oxidizes in air at around 660 oC to the pentoxide (V2O5).
The main use of vanadium is in alloys, especially with steel.
A small amount of vanadium adds strength, toughness, and heat resistance.
It is usually added in the form of ferrovanadium, a vanadium-iron alloy.
Vanadium steel alloys are used in gears, axles and crankshafts.
Titanium-aluminum-vanadium alloy is used in jet engines and for high-speed aircraft.
Vanadium-gallium tape is used in superconducting magnets.
Vanadium pentoxide is used in ceramics and as a catalyst for the production of sulfuric acid.
The first extensive industrial use of vanadium metal was over a century ago in the vanadium-steel alloy chassis of the Ford Model T car.
Source: Vanadium is not found free in nature but is found combined in about 65 different minerals. Vanadium is also found in bauxite and in fossil fuel deposits. Commercially, production of the metal is by calcium reduction of the pentoxide.
Isotopes: Vanadium has 18 isotopes whose half-lives are known, with mass numbers 43 to 60. Naturally occurring vanadium is a mixture of two isotopes, 50V and 51V with natural abundances of 0.2% and 99.7% respectively.
"Vanadium." Chemicool Periodic Table. Chemicool.com. 18 Oct. 2012. Web.
Thanks this was very easy and fast website. It was very very helpfull….. 🙂 thanks Again David D.
this stuff is actually awesome i never knew anything about the periodic table.