Vanadium is commonly alloyed with iron, titanium, and gallium for various applications. It is a silver gray metal with high strength and is mined from minerals. Ferrovanadium is used in vanadium steels and iron, while vanadium-containing alloys are used in cutting tools, engines, and turbines. Vanadium-titanium alloys are used in aerospace, military, and medical devices. Vanadium-gallium alloys are superconducting and used in superconducting magnets.
Different types of vanadium metal alloys are industrially produced for a number of different applications. Vanadium is most commonly alloyed with iron in various steel alloys, but is also alloyed with materials such as titanium and gallium. Vanadium metal is used for its high strength and its ability to maintain that strength at high temperatures. Some vanadium alloys also have other useful properties, such as superconductivity and corrosion resistance.
Vanadium is a silver gray metal. It is element 23 on the periodic table and its most common form has an atomic weight of 50.9. It is soft and ductile, with a melting point of 3470°F (1910°C, or 2183°K). It is never found in its pure state in nature and is mined for human use from minerals such as vanadinite, magnetite and carotite, usually in the form of vanadium oxide (V2O5), also called vanadium pentoxide. It has two naturally occurring isotopes, with the vast majority of vanadium in the form of vanadium-51, which is stable, and a small percentage in the form of the radioactive isotope vanadium-50.
An iron-vanadium alloy made up of at least 35 percent vanadium is called ferrovanadium. Ferrovanadium is used in the production of vanadium steels and iron, the primary use for the metal vanadium. These steel alloys sometimes include other alloying metals as well, such as nickel, aluminum, and chromium.
Vanadium gives steel greater strength and better performance at high temperatures. High carbon vanadium steels have very small amounts of vanadium, about 0.15% to 0.25%. High speed tool steels can have a much higher vanadium metal content, up to 14.5%. Vanadium-containing steel alloys are often used in applications that require strength and heat resistance, such as cutting tools and engine parts.
Vanadium is also used in titanium alloys, usually in combination with metallic aluminum. These alloys, which usually contain about 4% vanadium, are expensive but can have excellent strength and toughness that is maintained at very high temperatures. They are also lightweight and resistant to corrosion. Vanadium-containing titanium alloys are commonly used for aerospace and military applications that require high heat resistance, such as in engines and turbines, and high-performance automobile engines. They also have high biocompatibility, meaning they have no toxic effects on living tissue or cause harmful immune system responses, and thus are often used in implanted medical devices.
Vanadium alloyed with gallium is a superconducting alloy used in superconducting magnets. A superconductor is a material that conducts electricity without electrical resistance at very low temperatures. Vanadium-gallium becomes superconductive at a temperature of only 14.2° Kelvin above absolute zero (-434.1°F, or -258.9°C). Vanadium-gallium alloys can also contain small amounts of other elements such as niobium, tin or platinum.
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