Selenium Facts
Selenium Facts
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| Interesting Selenium Facts: |
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| Selenium was discovered in 1817 by Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius. |
| Due to the smell of the precipitate during burning, Berzelius originally thought he was working with tellurium. |
| When he realized there were no other tellurium compounds in the mine where the sample originated, Berzelius recognized that selenium was a new element. |
| Nearly sixty years later, Willoughby Smith discovered that selenium reacted to light. |
| Its use as a light sensor began in the 1870s. |
| Alexander Graham Bell used selenium to produce the photophone in 1879. |
| The selenium photophone allowed speech patterns to be transmitted on a beam of light. |
| It is also used today in solar technology, glass manufacturing, and alloys. |
| Selenium in its natural elemental state is rare. |
| Selenium does not readily form strong crystals. |
| The abundant mineral selenite actually does not contain the element selenium; they simply share the name from the Greek word for "moon." |
| It has several allotropes, which convert to each other at different temperatures. |
| Selenium has six isotopes in nature, but only five of those isotopes are stable. |
| The remaining unstable isotope of selenium actually has a half-life of one quintillion years, which makes it almost considered to be stable. |
| Twenty-three other unstable isotopes of selenium are known to exist. |
| While selenium is toxic in high doses, it appears to be a necessary nutrient in plants and animals. |
| Selenium plays a role in enzyme production in humans. |
| Certain plants require very high levels of selenium to survive, and are therefore good indicators of high selenium content in the soil in nature. |
| Around 2000 tons of selenium are extracted annually around the world. |
| Germany typically produces the most selenium each year, while China actually consumes the most for industrial purposes. |
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