 Discovery Information |
| Who:
H. Davy
,
J.L. Gay-Lussac
,
L.J. Thenard
|
| When: 1828 |
| Where: England/France |
|
| Name Origin |
| From borax and carbon. |
|
| Sources |
| Obtained from kernite, a kind of borax. |
|
| Uses |
| Used with titanium and tungsten to make light weight heat resistant alloys. Also tennis rackets, regulators in nuclear plants, heat resistant glass and eye disinfectant. The United States and Turkey are the world's largest producers of boron. |
|
| Notes |
| At standard temperatures boron is a poor electrical conductor but is a good conductor at high temperatures. |
| Boron nitride can be used to make materials that are almost as hard as diamond. The nitride also acts as an electrical insulator but conducts heat similar to a metal. This element also has lubricating qualities that are similar to graphite. |
| Boron is never found in the elemental form in nature. It was first obtained by
Moissan
in 1895 by reduction of boric anhydride with magnesium in a thermite-type reaction (Moissan, Ann. Chim Phys 7:6, 296, 1895). This is still used for obtaining large quantities of impure boron. Highly purified crystalline boron is obtained by vapor phase reduction of the compound boron trichloride with hydrogen on electrically heated filaments in a flow system. |
