How do humans use Tellurium?

Answer 1

Metallurgy[edit]

The largest consumer of tellurium is metallurgy, where it is used in iron, copper and lead alloys. When added to stainless steel and copper it makes these metals more machinable. It is alloyed into cast iron for promoting chill for spectroscopic purposes, as the presence of electrically conductive free graphite tends to deleteriously affect spark emission testing results. In lead it improves strength and durability and decreases the corrosive action of sulfuric acid.[22]

Semiconductor and electronic industry useS

A CdTe photovoltaic array

Tellurium is used in cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels. National Renewable Energy Laboratory lab tests using this material achieved some of the highest efficiencies for solar cell electric power generation. Massive commercial production of CdTe solar panels by First Solarin recent years has significantly increased tellurium demand.[39][40][41]If some of the cadmium in CdTe is replaced by zinc then (Cd,Zn)Te is formed which is used in solid-state X-raydetectors.[42]

Alloyed with both cadmium and mercury, to form mercury cadmium telluride, an infraredsensitive semiconductormaterial is formed.[43]Organotellurium compounds such as dimethyl telluride, diethyl telluride, diisopropyl telluride, diallyl telluride and methyl allyl telluride are used as precursors formetalorganic vapor phase epitaxy growth of II-VI compound semiconductors.[44]Diisopropyl telluride (DIPTe) is employed as the preferred precursor for achieving the low-temperature growth of CdHgTe by MOVPE.[45]For these processes highest purity metalorganicsof both selenium and tellurium are used. The compounds for semiconductor industry and are prepared by adduct purification.[46][47]

Tellurium as a tellurium suboxide is used in the media layer of several types of rewritable optical discs, including ReWritable Compact Discs (CD-RW), ReWritable Digital Video Discs (DVD-RW) and ReWritable Blu-ray Discs.[48][49]

Tellurium is used in the new phase change memory chips[50]developed by Intel.[51]Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and lead telluride are working elements of thermoelectricdevices. Lead telluride is used in far-infrareddetectors.

• Used to color ceramics.[52]
• The strong increase in optical refraction upon the addition of selenides and tellurides into glass is used in the production of glass fibers for telecommunications. These chalcogenide glassesare widely used.[53][54]
• Mixtures of selenium and tellurium are used with barium peroxide as oxidizer in the delay powder of electric blasting caps.[55]
• Organic tellurides have been employed as initiators for living radical polymerization and electron-rich mono- and di-tellurides possess antioxidantactivity.
• Rubber can be vulcanized with tellurium instead of sulfur or selenium. The rubber produced in this way shows improved heat resistance.[56]
• Telluriteagar is used to identify member of the corynebacteriumgenus, most typically Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the pathogen responsible for diphtheria.

Answer 2

Tellurium is primarily used in the production of semiconductors, particularly cadmium telluride solar panels. It is also used in some types of steel alloys, as a coloring agent in ceramics, and in certain types of glass production. Additionally, it has some limited use in certain industries for its thermoelectric properties.