Uses of the elements and their compounds

Key points: The most useful compound of boron is borax; the most commercially important element is aluminium.

The main use of B is in borosilicate glasses. Borax has many do mestic uses, for example as a water softener, cleaner, and mild pesticide. Boric acid, B(OH)₃, is used as a mild antiseptic. Amorphous   brown boron is used in pyrotechnics to impart a bright green colour. Boron is an essential micronutrient in plants. Lightweight, strong boron filaments are used in composite materials for the aerospace industry and in sports equipment. Many compounds of B are superhard materials, having hardness approaching that of diamond. Cubic boron nitride is synthesized at high pressures, which makes it expensive. Rhenium diboride does not require high pressures so pro duction is relatively cheap, but Re is an expensive metal. The mater ial known as ‘heterodiamond’, sometimes labelled BCN, is formed from diamond and boron nitride by explosive shock synthesis. These compounds are used as substitutes for diamond in cutting tools and blades. Sodium perborate, NaBO₃ , is used as a chlorine-free bleach in laundry products, cleaning materials, and tooth whitener. It is less aggressive to textiles than chlorine bleaches and active at low temperatures when mixed with an activator such as tetraacetylethylenediamine, which is commonly abbreviated to TAED. Boranes used to be popuar as fuels for rockets but were found to be too pyrophoric to be handled safely. Boranes are being investigated as possible hydrogen storage materials with the hydrogen stored as the ammonia-borane complex NH₃:BH₃ (Section 10.4 and 13.3). Aluminium is the most widely used nonferrous metal. The technological uses of aluminium metal exploit its lightness, resistance to corrosion, and the fact that it is easily recycled. It is used in cans, foils, utensils, in construction, and in aircraft alloys (Box 13.2). Many Al compounds are used as mordants, in water and sewage treatment, in paper production, as food additives, and for waterproofing textiles. Aluminium chloride and chlorohydride are used in antiperspirants and the hydroxide is used as an antacid. Sodium tetrahydridoaluminate, NaAlH₄, doped with TiF₃ is used as a hydrogen storage material.

Because the melting point of Ga (30°C) is just above room temperature, it is used in high-temperature thermometers. Gallium and in form a low-melting-point alloy that is used as the safety device in sprinkler systems. Both elements are deposited on glass surfaces to form corrosion-resistant mirrors, and In₂O₃ doped with Sn is used as a transparent, conducting coating for electronic displays and as a heat-reflective coating for light bulbs. Gallium nitride is used in blue laser diodes and is the basis of Blu-ray technology. It is insensitive to ionizing radiation and is used in solar cells in satellites. Gallium arsenide is a semiconductor and used in integrated circuits, light-emitting diodes and solar cells. Thallium compounds were once used to treat ringworm and as a rat and ant poison. However, this application has been banned because of their very high toxicity, which arises from the transport of Tl ions across cell membranes together with K⁺ ions (Section 26.3). Thallium is absorbed more efficiently by tumourcells and has been used in nuclear medicine as an imaging agent.

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مواضيع ذات صلة

Extended silicon oxygen compounds

Compounds of boron with nitrogen

Boron oxygen compounds

Occurrence and recovery

Boron clusters

Symmetry-adapted linear combinations

The assignment of molecular symmetry from vibrational spectra

Information from the symmetries of normal modes

The exclusion rule

Molecular vibrations

Chiral molecules

Polar molecules