COBALT

HISTOR
The tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, DISCOVER FACTS/TRIVIA
who ruled from 1361-1352 BC,

Ycontained a small glass object

coloured deep blue with cobalt.
Cobalt blue was known even earlier
Cobalt pigments, specifically the
blue, have been used for thousands
of years.
in China and was used for pottery The use of cobalt as a coloring agent
glazes. dates back to the Bronze Age.
In 1730, chemist Georg Brandt of Historically, cobalt has been
Stockholm became interested in a identified in ancient Egyptian art
dark blue ore from some local and Persian jewelry.
copper workings and he eventually Cobalt was also found in use in the

Georg Brandt
proved that it contained a hitherto ruins of the ancient city Pompeii.
unrecognised metal and he gave it The cobalt pigment is most widely
the name by which its ore was known for use in jewelry, glass, and
cursed by miners in Germany, paint.
where it was sometimes mistaken for Cobalt is only found in nature in
a silver ore. He published his results compounds.
in 1739. For many years his claim to
have uncovered a new metal was
LIFE
disputed by other chemists who said APPLICATION
Paints
his new element was really a Medicines
compound of iron and arsenic, but Alloys
eventually it was recognised as an Pottery
element in its own right. Trace Element
Meteors

PHYSICAL
PROPERTIES
Cobalt is a brittle, hard, silver-grey transition
metal with magnetic properties similar to those of
iron (it is ferromagnetic). It has a high melting
point and is hard-wearing even at high ELEMENTAL
temperatures. Its alloys also possess useful
properties and so it finds use in high speed steels DIAGRAM
and cutting tools for instance.

ELEMENTAL
NUMBER