O que é TUNGSTÊNIO? Descubra tudo sobre o TUNGSTÊNIO: usos, propriedades e curiosidades.

What is Tungsten? Hey Engineering Lovers, my name is Gustavo Pereira and at the request of one of our subscribers, who made a comment on our video about copper, today we are going to talk about a very powerful metal, tungsten. Tungsten is a metallic element with the symbol W and atomic number 74 on the periodic table.

It is a hard, dense and strong metal often used in applications that use high temperatures and high strengths. Some common uses of tungsten include the filaments in incandescent light bulbs, in high-speed cutting tools, and in aircraft and missile construction. It has the highest melting point of all metals, and is also an excellent conductor of electricity.

But when was tungsten discovered? Tungsten was discovered by two Spanish chemists, Fausto Elhuyar and his brother Juan José Elhuyar, in 1783. They discovered the element while analyzing a mineral sample from the Huaytapallana mountain in Peru.

The mineral found was called "wolframite" and it was from this mineral that the element tungsten was first isolated. And it is by the name Wolframite that Tungsten has the letter W in the periodic table. Tungsten has a very high melting point of 3422 °C, which is the highest of all metals, compared for example to iron which has a melting point of 1538 degrees Celsius, aluminum which is approximately 660 degrees Celsius and copper which is approximately 1084 degrees celsius.

Tungsten is also very hard and has a high density, making it ideal for use in high strength, high temperature applications, being harder than steel, titanium and other common metals. It also has high electrical conductivity and a low coefficient of thermal expansion, making it useful in electrical and electronic applications. In addition, it has great resistance to corrosion, making it useful in applications where this characteristic is important.

There's only one though. Tungsten is very brittle and difficult to work in its pure form, but it can be alloyed with other metals to improve its ductility and workability. Once alloyed with other metals, tungsten alloys are used in applications such as aerospace, defense systems, electrical and electronic systems, and even the medical sector.

It can even be used as a refractory metal, which means it can withstand high temperatures in extreme conditions. Tungsten is a relatively rare metal and is generally more expensive than other common metals such as steel, aluminum and copper. But where is this element found?

Tungsten can be found in nature in the form of various minerals, such as wolframite, scheelite and ferberite. These minerals are normally found in association with granite and other igneous rocks, but are also found in small amounts in many other rock types. Tungsten deposits are found all over the world, with some of the largest reserves located in China, Russia and Canada.

Other countries with significant tungsten reserves include the United States, Vietnam, Brazil and Portugal. We can even find tungsten in association with other metals, such as gold, silver and copper. And how is the process of obtaining this element through these minerals?

The process of obtaining this element from its minerals normally involves several steps. The first of these is undoubtedly mining, which can involve both open pit and underground mining methods. After collecting the ore, it goes through a crushing and grinding process, where the name says it is crushed and ground to a fine powder to release the tungsten minerals.

After that, this fine powder goes through a concentration process. That fine powder is processed to separate the tungsten minerals from the other minerals in the ore. This is usually done using gravity separation methods such as shake tables or magnetic separation methods.

Once concentrated, it goes on to the roasting phase. The concentrated tungsten minerals are then roasted, and this is a process that removes any impurities and prepares the minerals for the next step which is leaching. In this process, roasted minerals are leached with fluids such as sulfuric acid or sodium hydroxide to dissolve the tungsten.

Once we have the tungsten dissolved in the fluid, it is treated with a reducing agent to precipitate the tungsten as a solid, in a process we call precipitation. It's like using those pool products to decant the impurities to the bottom, except that in this case, we use a reducing agent to decant the tungsten. After removing solid tungsten from the precipitation process, it may be that the material may contain some impurities, and it goes through a filtration process to remove any remaining impurities.

Once filtered, the filtered precipitated material is then calcined, a process that removes moisture from the material and prepares it for the next step, which is reduction. Reduction transforms calcined tungsten and reduces it to metallic tungsten using a reducing agent such as hydrogen for example. And lastly, we have the refining process, where the metallic tungsten is then refined and goes through a new phase of removing any remaining impurities and the final product is high purity tungsten.

It is worth understanding that this entire process can vary depending on the specific mineral being processed and the purity and form of the final product. But where can we use tungsten in engineering? Tungsten has many uses in engineering because of its high melting point, high density and high strength, and primarily because it can be combined with other metals and materials to form alloys and compounds.

It is often alloyed with other metals such as cobalt, nickel and iron to produce tungsten carbide, which is extremely hard and has a high melting point. This tungsten carbide is widely used in cutting tools, wear resistant parts and other high performance applications. Furthermore, tungsten can also be combined with other materials to form composites.

For example, tungsten particles can be added to plastics to make them electrically conductive or to increase their strength and durability. You can also combine tungsten with ceramics to make high-strength, high-temperature-resistant materials, which are often used in the steel industry as a furnace refractory. Tungsten can also be combined with materials such as titanium, tantalum or molybdenum to make high-performance alloys used in aeronautical, aerospace and even defense and security systems.

We can even use tungsten in nuclear engineering, using the material as radiation shields, and even in the control rods of nuclear reactors. It is a very important and necessary material, mainly in engineering, and its characteristics are unique within our periodic table. And you?

Did you already know about tungsten and did you know about its uses? Have you ever thought that those drill bits in your drill might contain tungsten or have you changed that incandescent bulb for an LED one? Leave it here in the comments and I want to know.

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