Tellurium

What is a common characteristic of garlic and

tellurium? If you guessed the smell, and the
ability to ward off vampires, you guess correctly.
Tellurium has an interesting property of giving
humans a garlic-like smell if they are exposed to
toxic levels of this element. More information
will be given later, but wouldn't this information
have been useful for human beings if they didn't
have garlic for vampires?

Tellurium is an element that was discovered not

once, but twice in the late 1700's. Here in this
lesson, we will have a look at the details of
tellurium's discovery as well as the properties
and facts of this element.
Discovery
Franz-Joseph Muller von Reichenstein
The early history of tellurium is very interesting
in the fact that it didn't take much notice until
years later, and it was discovered by two
different individuals. One of these individuals
was Franz-Joseph Muller von Reichenstein, who
was stationed as an Austrian chief inspector of
an ore mine in Romania. In 1783, Muller found a
mineral that had a metallic look to it. He
decided to do more research on this mineral to
see what kind of common elements it
contained. For many years, he researched and
discovered that the element was not yet known.
He decided to publish his finding, but it did not
become widely known since the journal he
published it in was not popular.
Thirteen years later, Muller decided to send a
sample of the mineral to Martin Klaproth in
Berlin, Germany, in order to make sure that he
was correct with regards to finding a new
element. Klaproth approved his findings and
even named the element tellurium, which
comes from the Latin word 'tellus', meaning
Earth.

In 1789, another scientist had made similar

findings. Pal Kitaibel, a Hungarian botanist and
chemist, had researched this element as well
and had discovered that it was an unknown
element. However, he gave credit to Muller,
since he was the first one to have discovered
the element.

Properties
Tellurium Element
Tellurium Element
Tellurium has an atomic number of 52, meaning
it has 52 protons in the nucleus of the atom. On
the periodic table, it is grouped up with
metalloids, which are elements that have both
metal and nonmetal characteristics. Because of
this, most metalloids tend to be shiny, but
brittle, and are semiconductors. Tellurium is a
solid at room temperature, and it usually comes
as a dark, gray powder. Along with being
crystalline and silver-white, this element has a
high boiling point and melting point.

Facts
Tellurium is very rare on earth. It was
first found in gold tellurides, but now, the
largest source of tellurium comes from copper
refinement.