What is Tantalum?
Tantalum is a rare metal found in Australia (56%), Africa (19%), Brazil (16%), China (5%) and Canada (4%). This high performance metal has a high melting point, high strength, high ductility, high reliability, high resistance to corrosion and high thermal conductivity making it a highly efficient, highly reliable and environmentally versatile component for use in a wide variety of applications that contribute significantly to our economy and way of life. What is the Market for Tantalum? The largest application for tantalum (approx. 68%) is in the electronics capacitor industry in such products as cell phones, DVD players, personal computers, digital cameras, gaming platforms, LCD monitors, wireless devices, telephone switch boards and computer networks because of its unequaled capacity to store and release electrical charges. Other electronics applications (11%) are in PC memory chips, igniter chips for car air bags and other automotive electronics. In addition, tantalum is used in the
Tantalum is a metallic chemical element classified among the transition metals on the periodic table of elements. It is a relatively rare element, and it has few uses, most of which are industrial. Consumers may have interacted with tantalum if they have medical implants or if they have experienced surgery. This element is particularly renowned for its inertness and ability to resist chemical attack by a wide range of substances. This element appears naturally in the element tantalite, and it often appears in compounds with niobium, a closely related element. When isolated, tantalum is a very hard, heavy dull gray metal, although it is relatively ductile when heated. The element has the atomic number 73, and it is identified on the periodic table of elements with the symbol Ta. Like other metals in the transition group, tantalum is solid at room temperature, and the melting point of tantalum is around 3,290 Kelvin (5,463 degrees Fahrenheit or 3,017 degrees Celsius). Credit for the disc
