The most durable metal. High strength metals. The most durable metal: what kind of metal is it? Durable and reliable metal

The use of metals in everyday life began at the dawn of human development, and the first metal was copper, since it is available in nature and can be easily processed. It is not without reason that archaeologists during excavations find various products and household utensils made of this metal. In the process of evolution, people gradually learned to combine various metals, obtaining increasingly durable alloys suitable for making tools, and later weapons. Nowadays, experiments continue, thanks to which it is possible to identify the strongest metals in the world.

Our rating opens with titanium, a high-strength hard metal that immediately attracted attention. The properties of titanium are: high specific strength; resistance to high temperatures; low density; corrosion resistance; mechanical and chemical resistance

9 Uranus
The most famous element, considered one of the strongest metals in the world, and under normal conditions is a weak radioactive metal. In nature, it is found both in a free state and in acidic sedimentary rocks. It is quite heavy, widely distributed everywhere and has paramagnetic properties, flexibility, malleability, and relative ductility. Uranium is used in many areas of production.

8 Tungsten

Known as the most refractory metal in existence, it is one of the strongest metals in the world. It is a solid transitional element of a shiny silver-gray color. It has high strength, excellent refractoriness, and resistance to chemical influences. Due to its properties, it can be forged and drawn into a thin thread. Known as tungsten filament.

Among the representatives of this group, it is considered a high-density transition metal with a silvery-white color. It occurs in nature in its pure form, but is found in molybdenum and copper raw materials. It is characterized by high hardness and density, and has excellent refractoriness. It has increased strength, which is not lost due to repeated temperature changes. Rhenium is an expensive metal and has a high cost. Used in modern technology and electronics.

A shiny silver-white metal with a slightly bluish tint, it belongs to the platinum group and is considered one of the strongest metals in the world. Similar to iridium, it has a high atomic density, high strength and hardness. Since osmium is a platinum metal, it has properties similar to iridium: refractoriness, hardness, brittleness, resistance to mechanical stress, as well as to the influence of aggressive environments. It is widely used in surgery, electron microscopy, the chemical industry, rocketry, and electronic equipment.

5 Beryllium
It belongs to the group of metals and is a light gray element with relative hardness and high toxicity. Due to its unique properties, beryllium is used in a wide variety of production areas: nuclear energy; aerospace engineering; metallurgy; laser technology; nuclear energy. Due to its high hardness, beryllium is used in the production of alloying alloys and refractory materials.

4 Chrome
Next on the list of the ten strongest metals in the world is chromium - a hard, high-strength metal of a bluish-white color, resistant to alkalis and acids. It occurs in nature in its pure form and is widely used in various branches of science, technology and production. Chromium is used to create various alloys that are used in the manufacture of medical and chemical processing equipment. When combined with iron, it forms an alloy called ferrochrome, which is used in the manufacture of metal-cutting tools.

Tantalum deserves bronze in the ranking, as it is one of the strongest metals in the world. It is a silvery metal with high hardness and atomic density. Due to the formation of an oxide film on its surface, it has a leaden tint. The distinctive properties of tantalum are high strength, refractoriness, resistance to corrosion, and resistance to aggressive environments. The metal is a fairly ductile metal and can be easily machined. Today tantalum is successfully used: in the chemical industry; during the construction of nuclear reactors; in metallurgical production; when creating heat-resistant alloys.

2 Ruthenium

The second place in the ranking of the most durable metals in the world is occupied by ruthenium, a silvery metal belonging to the platinum group. Its peculiarity is the presence of living organisms in the muscle tissue. Valuable properties of ruthenium are high strength, hardness, refractoriness, chemical resistance, and the ability to form complex compounds. Ruthenium is considered a catalyst for many chemical reactions and acts as a material for the manufacture of electrodes, contacts, and sharp tips.

1 Iridium
The ranking of the most durable metals in the world is headed by iridium - a silver-white, hard and refractory metal that belongs to the platinum group. In nature, the high-strength element is extremely rare and is often combined with osmium. Due to its natural hardness, it is difficult to machine and is highly resistant to chemicals. Iridium reacts with great difficulty to exposure to halogens and sodium peroxide. This metal plays an important role in everyday life. It is added to titanium, chromium and tungsten to improve resistance to acidic environments, used in the manufacture of stationery, and used in jewelry to create jewelry. The cost of iridium remains high due to its limited presence in nature.

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Metals accompany humanity almost all of its conscious life. This began, of course, with copper, since it is the most amenable to processing material and available in nature.

Evolution helped people develop significantly technically and over time they began to invent alloys that became stronger and stronger. In our time, experiments continue, and new durable alloys appear every year. Let's consider the best of them.

Titanium

Titanium is a high-strength material that is in high demand in many industries. The most common area of ​​application is aviation. This is due to the successful combination of low mass and high strength. Also, the properties of titanium are high specific strength, resistance to physical influences, temperatures and corrosion.

Uranus

One of the most durable elements. Under natural conditions, it is a weak radioactive metal. It can be found in a free state, is very heavy and is widely distributed everywhere due to its paramagnetic properties. Uranium is flexible, has high malleability and relative ductility.

Tungsten

The most refractory metal currently known. It has a silver-gray color and is a so-called transitional element. The properties of tungsten allow it to resist chemical attack and be forgeable. The most famous area of ​​application is used in incandescent lamps.

Rhenium

Silver-white metal. It can be found in nature in its pure form, but there is also molybdenum raw material in which it is also found. A distinctive feature of rhenium is its refractoriness. It belongs to expensive metals, so its cost is also off the charts. The main area of ​​application is electronics.

Osmium

Osmium is a silvery-white metal that has a slight blue tint. It belongs to the platinum group and has an unusually strong similarity with iridium in such properties as refractoriness, hardness and brittleness.

Beryllium

This metal is an element that has a light gray tint and is highly toxic. Having such unusual properties, the material has found wide application in the field of nuclear energy and laser technology. The high strength of beryllium allows it to be used in the manufacture of alloying alloys.

Chromium

The bluish-white tint makes chrome stand out from the crowd. It is resistant to alkalis and acids. In nature it can be found in its pure form. Chromium is often used to create various alloys, which are later used in the fields of medicine and chemical equipment.

It is worth noting that ferrochrome is an alloy of chromium and iron. It is used in the manufacture of metal cutting tools.

Tantalum

It is a silvery metal with high hardness and density. A lead tint on metal is formed due to the appearance of an oxide film on the surface. The metal lends itself well to processing.

Today, tantalum is successfully used in the construction of nuclear reactors and metallurgical production.

Ruthenium

A silvery metal that belongs to the platinum group. It has an unusual composition: it contains muscle tissue of living organisms. Another distinctive fact is that ruthenium is used as a catalyst for many chemical reactions.

Iridium

This metal ranks first in our rating. It has a silvery-white color. Iridium also belongs to the platinum group and has the highest hardness of the above metals. In the modern world it is used very often. It is mainly added to other metals to improve their resistance to acidic environments. The metal itself is very expensive, since it is very poorly distributed in nature.

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A common belief about hardness is diamond or damask steel/damascus steel. If the first mineral is superior to all simple substances existing on Earth that nature has created, then the amazing properties of blades made of rare steel are due to the skill of swordsmiths and additives from other metals. Many technical alloys, used, for example, for the production of super-hard cutters in the engineering industry, creating durable, reliable tools with unique properties, are associated with these additives in the usual symbiosis of iron and carbon, in short, traditionally called steel - chromium, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel. When readers ask what the hardest metal in the world is, they are bombarded with a barrage of conflicting information on the pages of websites. In this role, according to the authors of various articles, either tungsten or chromium, or iridium with osmium, or titanium with tantalum.

In order to get through the jungle of not always correctly interpreted, albeit accurate facts, it is worth turning to the original source - the system of elements contained both in the composition and in other cosmic objects, left to humanity by the great Russian chemist and physicist D.I. Mendeleev. He had encyclopedic knowledge, made many scientific breakthroughs in knowledge about the structure, composition, and interaction of substances, in addition to the famous table based on the fundamental periodic law he discovered, named after him.

The planets closest to the Sun - Mercury, Venus, Mars, together with our planet, are classified as one - the terrestrial group. There are reasons for this not only among astronomers, physicists and mathematicians, but also among geologists and chemists. The reason for such conclusions among the latter is, among other things, the fact that they all mainly consist of silicates, i.e. various derivatives of the element silicon, as well as numerous metal compounds from Dmitry Ivanovich’s table.

In particular, our planet mostly (up to 99%) consists of ten elements:

But man, in addition to the iron and alloys based on it necessary for survival and development, has always been much more attracted to precious metals, often respectfully called noble metals - gold and silver, and later platinum.

According to the scientific classification adopted by chemists, the platinum group includes ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and osmium with iridium. All of them also belong to noble metals. Based on their atomic mass, they are conventionally divided into two subgroups:

The last two are of particular interest for our pseudo-scientific investigation on the topic of who is the hardest here. This is due to the fact that the large atomic mass compared to other elements: 190.23 for osmium, 192.22 for iridium, according to the laws of physics, implies a huge specific density, and, consequently, the hardness of these metals.

If dense, heavy gold and lead are soft, plastic substances that are easy to process, then osmium and iridium, discovered at the beginning of the 19th century, turned out to be fragile. Here it is necessary to remember that the measure of this physical property is that a diamond, which can be used to inscribe on any other hard material of natural or artificial origin without much effort, is also extremely fragile, i.e. It's fairly easy to break. Although, at first glance, this seems almost impossible.

In addition, osmium and palladium have many more interesting properties:

• Very high refractoriness.
• Resistant to corrosion and oxidation even when heated to high temperatures.
• Resistant to concentrated acids and other aggressive compounds.

Therefore, along with platinum, including in the form of compounds with it, they are used in the production of catalysts for many chemical processes, high-precision devices, equipment, tools in the medical, scientific, military, and space sectors of human activity.

It is osmium and iridium, and scientists after research believe that this property is approximately equally given to them by nature, are the hardest metals in the world.



And everything would be fine, but not very good. The fact is that both their presence in the earth’s crust and, accordingly, the global production of these very useful minerals are negligible:

• 10 -11% is their content in the solid shell of the planet.
• The total amount of pure metal produced per year is within the following limits: 4 tons for iridium, 1 t for osmium.
• The price of osmium is approximately equal to the price of gold.

It is clear that these rare earth, expensive metals, despite their hardness, cannot even be used to a limited extent as raw materials for production; perhaps as additives to alloys, compounds with other metals to impart unique properties.

Who is for them?

But a person would not be himself if he had not found a replacement for iridium with osmium. Since it is inappropriate and too expensive to use them, then attention was not without success turned to other metals that have found their application in different situations and industries for the creation of new alloys, composite materials, production of equipment, machines and mechanisms for both civil and military use:

Although the hardest metal in the world, or rather two of them - iridium and osmium, have shown their unique properties only in laboratory conditions, and also as negligible percentage additives to alloys, other compounds for creating new materials necessary for humans should be grateful to nature and for this gift. At the same time, there is no doubt that the inquisitive minds of talented scientists and brilliant inventors will come up with new substances with unique properties, as has already happened with the synthesis of fullerenes, which turned out to be harder than diamond, which is already surprising.

Our world is full of amazing facts that are interesting to many people. The properties of various metals are no exception. Among these elements, of which there are 94 in the world, there are the most ductile and malleable, and there are also those with high electrical conductivity or a high resistance coefficient. This article will talk about the hardest metals, as well as their unique properties.

Iridium ranks first in the list of metals that are distinguished by the greatest hardness. It was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century by the English chemist Smithson Tennant. Iridium has the following physical properties:

• has a silvery-white color;
• its melting point is 2466 o C;
• boiling point – 4428 o C;
• resistance – 5.3·10−8Ohm·m.

Because iridium is the hardest metal on the planet, it is difficult to process. But it is still used in various industrial fields. For example, it is used to make small balls that are used in pen nibs. Iridium is used to make components for space rockets, some parts for cars, and more.

Very little iridium occurs in nature. Findings of this metal are a kind of evidence that meteorites fell in the place where it was discovered. These cosmic bodies contain significant amounts of metal. Scientists believe that our planet is also rich in iridium, but its deposits are closer to the Earth's core.

The second position on our list goes to ruthenium. The discovery of this inert silvery metal belongs to the Russian chemist Karl Klaus, which was made in 1844. This element belongs to the platinum group. It is a rare metal. Scientists have been able to establish that there is approximately 5 thousand tons of ruthenium on the planet. It is possible to extract approximately 18 tons of metal per year.

Due to its limited quantity and high cost, ruthenium is rarely used in industry. It is used in the following cases:

• a small amount of it is added to titanium to improve corrosion properties;
• Its alloy with platinum is used to make electrical contacts that are highly resistant;
• ruthenium is often used as a catalyst for chemical reactions.

A metal called tantalum, discovered in 1802, takes third place on our list. It was discovered by the Swedish chemist A. G. Ekeberg. For a long time it was believed that tantalum is identical to niobium. But the German chemist Heinrich Rose managed to prove that these are two different elements. Scientist Werner Bolton from Germany was able to isolate tantalum in its pure form in 1922. This is a very rare metal. The largest deposits of tantalum ore were discovered in Western Australia.

Due to its unique properties, tantalum is a highly sought-after metal. It is used in various fields:

• in medicine, tantalum is used to make wire and other elements that can hold tissue together and even act as a bone substitute;
• alloys with this metal are resistant to aggressive environments, which is why they are used in the manufacture of aerospace equipment and electronics;
• tantalum is also used to create energy in nuclear reactors;
• the element is widely used in the chemical industry.

Chromium is one of the hardest metals. It was discovered in Russia in 1763 in a deposit in the Northern Urals. It has a bluish-white color, although there are cases where it is considered a black metal. Chrome cannot be called a rare metal. The following countries are rich in its deposits:

• Kazakhstan;
• Russia;
• Madagascar;
• Zimbabwe.

There are chromium deposits in other countries as well. This metal is widely used in various branches of metallurgy, science, mechanical engineering and others.

The fifth position in the list of the hardest metals goes to beryllium. Its discovery belongs to the chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin from France, which was made in 1798. This metal has a silvery-white color. Despite its hardness, beryllium is a brittle material, which makes it very difficult to process. It is used to create high-quality loudspeakers. It is used to create jet fuel and refractory materials. The metal is widely used in the creation of aerospace technology and laser systems. It is also used in nuclear energy and in the manufacture of X-ray equipment.

The list of the hardest metals also includes osmium. It is an element belonging to the platinum group, and its properties are similar to iridium. This refractory metal is resistant to aggressive environments, has a high density, and is difficult to process. It was discovered by the scientist Smithson Tennant from England in 1803. This metal is widely used in medicine. Elements of pacemakers are made from it, and it is also used to create the pulmonary valve. It is also widely used in the chemical industry and for military purposes.

The transition silver metal rhenium takes the seventh position on our list. The assumption about the existence of this element was made by D.I. Mendeleev in 1871, and chemists from Germany managed to discover it in 1925. Just 5 years after this, it was possible to establish the extraction of this rare, durable and refractory metal. At that time, it was possible to obtain 120 kg of rhenium per year. Now the amount of annual metal production has increased to 40 tons. It is used for the production of catalysts. It is also used to make electrical contacts that can self-clean.

Silver-gray tungsten is not only one of the hardest metals, it also leads in refractoriness. It can only be melted at a temperature of 3422 o C. Thanks to this property, it is used to create incandescent elements. Alloys made from this element have high strength and are often used for military purposes. Tungsten is also used to make surgical instruments. It is also used to make containers in which radioactive materials are stored.

One of the hardest metals is uranium. It was discovered in 1840 by the chemist Peligo. D.I. Mendeleev made a great contribution to the study of the properties of this metal. The radioactive properties of uranium were discovered by the scientist A. A. Becquerel in 1896. Then a chemist from France called the detected metal radiation Becquerel rays. Uranium is often found in nature. The countries with the largest deposits of uranium ore are Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The final place in the top ten hardest metals goes to titanium. For the first time this element was obtained in its pure form by the chemist J. Ya. Berzelius from Sweden in 1825. Titanium is a lightweight silver-white metal that is highly durable and resistant to corrosion and mechanical stress. Titanium alloys are used in many branches of mechanical engineering, medicine and the chemical industry.

Most of the elements in the periodic table belong to metals. They differ in physical and chemical characteristics, but have common properties: high electrical and thermal conductivity, plasticity, positive temperature. Most metals are solid under normal conditions, with one exception to this rule: mercury. Chromium is considered the hardest metal.

In 1766, a previously unknown rich red mineral was discovered at one of the mines near Yekaterinburg. It was given the name “Siberian red lead”. The modern name for this is “crocoite”, its PbCrO4. The new mineral has attracted the attention of scientists. In 1797, the French chemist Vauquelin, conducting experiments with it, isolated a new metal, later called chromium.

Chromium compounds are brightly colored in a variety of colors. This is why it got its name, because in translation from Greek “chrome” means “paint”.

In its pure form, it is a silver-bluish metal. It is an essential component of alloy (stainless) steels, giving them corrosion resistance and hardness. Chrome is widely used in electroplating, to provide a beautiful, wear-resistant protective coating, and in leather processing. Rocket parts, heat-resistant nozzles, etc. are made from alloys based on the base. Most sources claim that chromium is the hardest metal in existence. The hardness of chromium (depending on the experimental conditions) reaches 700-800 units on the Brinell scale.

Chromium, although considered the hardest metal on earth, is only slightly inferior in hardness to tungsten and uranium.

How chromium is obtained in industry

Chromium is found in many minerals. The richest deposits of chrome ores are located in South Africa (South Africa). There are many chrome ores in Kazakhstan, Russia, Zimbabwe, Turkey and some other countries. The most widespread is chromium iron ore Fe (CrO2)2. Chromium is obtained from this mineral by firing it in an electric furnace over a layer of coke. The reaction proceeds according to the following formula: Fe (CrO2)2 + 4C = 2Cr + Fe + 4CO.

The hardest metal from chromium iron ore can be obtained in another way. To do this, the mineral is first fused with soda ash, resulting in the formation of sodium chromate Na2CrO4. Then, after acidifying the solution, the chromium is converted into dichromate (Na2Cr2O7). From sodium dichromate, by calcination with coal, the main chromium oxide Cr2O3 is obtained. At the final stage, after the interaction of this oxide with aluminum at high temperature, pure chromium is formed.