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Transition Metals

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042 Molybdenum Cylinder

Pure molybdenum is a heavy, lustrous, silver-grey metal with the fifth highest melting point of all the metals. For this reason molybdenum is traded commercially as a powder and, like many of the transition metals, most is used in alloys and only a small percentage as the pure metal. These pure molybdenum cylinders weigh just over half as much as our matching tungsten cylinders.

044 Ruthenium (5 grams)

Ruthenium is another exceedingly rare member of the platinum group metals. It is a hard, corrosion resistant, silver-white metal, stable in air, except at high temperatures. It is recovered mainly as a by-product of platinum, palladium and nickel refining - native ruthenium, as well as ruthenium alloys and minerals do occur in nature but are exceptionally rare. Its main uses are as a hardener in platinum and palladium alloys, with around half being used in wear resistant electrical contacts and resistors.

The price of ruthenium belies its rarity. Not having widespread essential uses, as do palladium, platinum and rhodium, ruthenium has always been the cheapest of the platinum metals. This changed in late 2006 when a bull market driven by an increase in the amount of ruthenium used in the manufacture of computer hard drives caused the price to sky-rocket, reaching a peak of $870 (£446) per ounce on February 15th, 2007.

These arc-melted pure ruthenium pearls are considerably cheaper that that! The price shown below is for one piece. A display vial with the chemical symbol, Ru, engraved on the lid will be supplied with each order.

purity: 99.99%

size: ~mm

vial size: 44mm x 20mm

weight: 5 grams

price: £60 ex. shipping

074 Tungsten Cylinder

Tungsten is amongst the densest of all the elements, exceeded only by rhenium, platinum, iridium, osmium and some of the transuranic elements. This cylinder exceeds an astonishing one kilogram in weight, close to theoretical density. It always surprises those picking one up for the first time and makes an ideal companion piece to our matching magnesium cylinders which, although the same size, weigh only 92 grams.

075 Rhenium (10 grams)

Rhenium is a very dense and very rare silver coloured transition metal lying to the left of osmium in the Periodic Table. It's melting point of 3,180°C is only exceeded by tungsten. Although its existence was deduced, rhenium was the last of the stable elements to be discovered in May 1925 - less than a century ago it would have been impossible to to possess one of these rhenium pearls! Rhenium is obtained as a by-product of molybdenum smelting and no rhenium minerals were known until 1994 when Russian mineralogists studying the Kudriavy volcano in the Kuril Islands discovered a mineral consisting of nearly pure rhenium sulfide, subsequently named rheniite. Rhenium is now important in a number of nickel based superalloys used in the aerospace industry. It is generally stable but is susceptible to oxidising in moist air.

purity: 99.99%

size: ~11.75mm

vial size: 44mm x 20mm

weight: 10 grams

price: £130 ex. shipping

079 Gold

This is the gold sample from the Element Collection boxed set. It is in the form of piece of thick high-purity rolled sheet that has been shaped to visually fill the vial. We would love to supply solid gold pieces instead, which would weigh a surprisingly heavy 100g to completely fill the 7ml vial. But the cost of this single sample would then be over £2,500!