Crossword clues for tellurium
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tellurium \Tel*lu"ri*um\, n. [NL., from L. tellus, -uris, the earth.] (Chem.) A rare nonmetallic element, analogous to sulphur and selenium, occasionally found native as a substance of a silver-white metallic luster, but usually combined with metals, as with gold and silver in the mineral sylvanite, with mercury in Coloradoite, etc. Symbol Te. Atomic weight 125.2.
Graphic tellurium. (Min.) See Sylvanite.
Tellurium glance (Min.), nagyagite; -- called also black tellurium.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
metallic element, 1800, coined 1798 in Modern Latin by German chemist and mineralogist Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817) from Latin tellus (genitive telluris) "earth" (see tellurian) + -ium.
Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. 1 (context uncountable English) The chemical element with atomic number 52. Symbol: Te. 2 A single atom of this element. Etymology 2
n. A variant spelling of '''tellurion'''.
WordNet
n. a brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur; it is used in alloys and as a semiconductor; occurs mainly as tellurides in ores of copper and nickel and silver and gold [syn: Te, atomic number 52]
Wikipedia
Tellurium is a chemical element with symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is occasionally found in native form as elemental crystals. Tellurium is far more common in the universe as a whole than on Earth. Its extreme rarity in the Earth's crust, comparable to that of platinum, is due partly to its high atomic number, but also to its formation of a volatile hydride which caused it to be lost to space as a gas during the hot nebular formation of the planet.
Tellurium was discovered in the Habsburg Empire, in 1782 by Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein in a mineral containing tellurium and gold. Martin Heinrich Klaproth named the new element in 1798 after the Latin word for "earth", tellus. Gold telluride minerals are the most notable natural gold compounds. However, they are not a commercially significant source of tellurium itself, which is normally extracted as a by-product of copper and lead production.
Commercially, the primary use of tellurium is copper and steel alloys, where it improves machinability. Applications in CdTe solar panels and semiconductors also consume a considerable portion of tellurium production.
Tellurium has no biological function, although fungi can use it in place of sulfur and selenium in amino acids such as tellurocysteine and telluromethionine. In humans, tellurium is partly metabolized into dimethyl telluride, (CH)Te, a gas with a garlic-like odor exhaled in the breath of victims of tellurium exposure or poisoning.
Usage examples of "tellurium".
It is also found in some comparatively rare minerals, such as tetradymite, combined with tellurium, and associated with gold.
The tellurium is comprised of brass or wooden balls representing the Sun, Earth, and Moon with associated gears, arms, and pulleys, and is used to demonstrate the mechanics of eclipses and of the seasons.
The single finest tellurium in existence was built by the New England machinist, astronomer, and misanthrope, Benjamin Dee, in 1816.
So precisely constructed was it, in fact, that by the laws of sympathetic magic, a simple adjustment to the tellurium would change the seasons in the real world as well.
Then, desiring vengeance upon the world for unspecified slights, he cranked the tellurium around to winter, and tied down the handle.
His tellurium underwent various adventures and now rests forgotten in a box stored in a library basement, not far from the furnace.
How did so much tellurium, such an exotic high-tech material, get deposited on Venus?
It may be detected by the purple colour it imparts to strong sulphuric acid when dissolved in the cold, and by the black precipitate of metallic tellurium which its solutions yield on treatment with a reducing agent.
Oxygen, sulfur, selenium, and tellurium made up another, while lithium, sodium, and potassium were placed in a third.
Then Mendeleev looked at tellurium, which was supposed to have an atomic weight of 128.
In this state, the tellurium atoms are not bound to particular lattice sites and are scattered at random throughout the block.
It also requires approximately a microgram of tellurium, an element known to this world but not easily available.
Then, desiring vengeance upon the world for unspecified slights, he cranked the tellurium around to winter, and tied down the handle.