GERMANIUM

Mitchell Zembower
 BACKGROUND
• Discovered by German chemist,
Clemens-Alexander Winkler in 1886
• Lustrous, hard-brittle, and grayish-white metalloid
• Solid at STP
• Part of the carbon group
• Chemically similar to silicon and tin
• MW = 72.631 g/mol
• Atomic number: 32
• Electron configuration: [Ar]3d104s24p2
• Melting Point: 1211 K
• Boiling Point: 3106 K
• Density: 5.323 g/cm3
 ISOTOPE AND RELATIVE ABUNDANCE
70
• Ge (20.84%) • 27 Radioisotopes have been
• 72
Ge (27.54%) synthesized ranging from atomic
mass of 58 to 89
• Will generate stable 77Se when
68
bombarded with alpha particles • Ge is the most stable
• 73
Ge (7.73%) • Half-life of 270.95 days
60
• 74
Ge (36.28%) • Ge is the least stable
• Most common • Half-life of 30 ms
76
• Ge (7.61%)
• Least common
• Slightly radioactive by double beta
decay
• Half-life of 1.78 x 1021 years
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
• Face-centered diamond-cubic
 HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS

• There have been medical claims that germanium supplements could boost
the body’s oxygen supply, but hasn’t been scientifically proven
• Germanium hydride and germanium tetrahydride are extremely flammable
and explosive when mixed with air
• Can irritate eyes, skin, and respiratory tract. Can also result in lesions of
blood cells
• Since it is a heavier metal, negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems is
possible
 COMMON
COMPOUNDS
• GeO2
• Used as material for
optical fibers
• Used as feedstock for
production of some
phosphors and
semiconductor materials
• GeCl4
• Used as a reagent for fiber
optic production
 MODERN USES
• Fiber and Infrared optics
• GeO2 has a high index of refraction and low optical
dispersion
• Useful for wide-angle camera lenses and microscopy
• Used in thermal imaging camera used in hot-spot
detection in military and mobile night vision
• Semiconductors
• Elemental germanium is used as semiconductors in
transistors
• First decade of semiconductor electronics was based solely
on germanium
• Electronic and Solar Electric
• High efficiency solar panels
• Used to make solar cells
• LEDs in cars and LCD screens contain germanium
 HISTORICAL USES
• In 1947, John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain at AT&T’s Bell Labs, observed
that when two gold point contacts
were applied to germanium, a signal
was produced that was greater than
the input
• William Shockley saw potential in this
and expanded this knowledge to
semiconductors
• In 1947, Bardeen, Brattain, and
Shockley invented the first
point-contact transistor
• In 1956 they were awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physics ”for their researches on
semiconductors and their discovery of
the transistor effect”
 RECYCLING GERMANIUM
CONTAINING FIBER OPTICS
• By 2002, the United States
consumed 60% of annual
germanium use
• Germanium is
environmentally scarce
• A research group at
Shanghai Jiao Tong
University found a way to
recycle optical fiber scraps
to recover germanium
• This is done by low-vacuum Zhang, L.; Song, Q.; Xu, Z. Thermodynamics, Kinetics Mode, and Reaction Mechanism
phosphate reduction of of Low-Vacuum Phosphate Reduction Process for Germanium Recovery from Optical
Fiber Scraps. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7 (2), 2176-2186.
GeO2
 REFERENCES
• Zhang, L.; Song, Q.; Xu, Z. Thermodynamics, Kinetics Mode, and Reaction
Mechanism of Low-Vacuum Phosphate Reduction Process for Germanium
Recovery from Optical Fiber Scraps. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7 (2),
2176-2186.
• https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/32/germanium
• https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele032.html
• https://djena.engineering.cornell.edu/hws/history_of_semiconductors.pdf