Vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol V and atomic number 23. A rare, soft and ductile element, vanadium is found combined in certain minerals and is used mainly to produce certain alloys.

Notable characteristics

Vanadium is a soft and ductile, gray-white metal. It has good resistance to corrosion by alkalis, sulfuric and hydrochloric acid. It oxidizes readily at about 933 K. Vanadium has good structural strength and a low fission neutron cross section, making it useful in nuclear applications. Although definitely a metal, it shares with chromium and manganese the property of having valency oxides with acid properties.

Common oxidation states of vanadium include +2, +3, +4 and +5. A popular experiment with ammonium vanadate (N H₄VO₃), reducing the compound with zinc metal, can demonstrate colorimetrically all four of these vanadium oxidation states. A +1 oxidation state is also rarely seen.

Applications

Approximately 80% of vanadium produced is used as ferrovanadium or as a steel additive. Other uses;

In such alloys as:
- specialty stainless steel, e.g. for use in surgical instruments and tools.
- rust resistant and high speed tool steels.
- mixed with aluminium in titanium alloys used in jet engines and high-speed airframes
Vanadium steel alloys are used in axles, crankshafts, gears, and other critical components.
It is an important carbide stabilizer in making steels.
Because of its low fission neutron cross section, vanadium has nuclear applications.
Vanadium foil is used in cladding titanium to steel.
Vanadium-gallium tape is in superconducting magnets (175,000 gauss).
Vanadium(V) oxide (vanadium pentoxide, V₂O₅) is used as a catalyst in manufacturing sulfuric acid (via the Contact process) and maleic anhydride. It is also used in making ceramics.
Glass coated with vanadium dioxide (VO₂) can block infrared radiation (and not visible light) at some specific temperature.
Electrical fuel cells and storage batteries such as Vanadium redox batteries.
Added to corundum to make simulated Alexandrite jewelry.
Vanadate electrochemical conversion coatings for protecting steel against rust and corrosion

History

Vanadium (Scandinavian goddess, Vanadis) was originally discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río (a Spanish mineralogist) at Mexico City in 1801, who called it "brown lead" (now named vanadinite). Through experimentation, he saw that the colors it exhibited were reminiscent of chromium, so he named the element panchromium. He later renamed this compound erythronium, since most of the salts turned red when heated. The French chemist Hippolyte Victor Collet-Descotils incorrectly declared that del Rio's new element was only impure chromium. Del Rio thought himself to be mistaken and accepted the statement of the French chemist that was also backed by Del Rio's friend Baron Alexander von Humboldt

In 1831, Sefström of Sweden rediscovered vanadium in a new oxide he found while working with some iron ores and later that same year Friedrich Wöhler confirmed del Rio's earlier work. Later, George William Featherstonhaugh, one of the first US geologists, suggested that the element should be named "rionium" after Del Rio, but this never happened.

Metallic vanadium was isolated by Henry Enfield Roscoe in 1867, who reduced vanadium chloride (VCl₃) with hydrogen. The name vanadium comes from Vanadis, a goddess in Scandinavian mythology, because the element has beautiful multicolored chemical compounds.

Biological role

In biology, a vanadium atom is an essential component of some enzymes, particularly the vanadium nitrogenase used by some nitrogen-fixing microorganisms. Vanadium is essential to ascidians or sea squirts in Vanadium Chromagen Proteins. The concentration of vanadium in their blood is more than 100 times higher than the concentration of vanadium in the seawater around them. Rats and chickens are also known to require vanadium in very small amounts and deficiencies result in reduced growth and impaired reproduction.

Administration of oxovanadium compounds has been shown to alleviate diabetes mellitus symptoms in certain animal models and humans. Much like the chromium effect on sugar metabolism, the mechanism of this effect is unknown.

Occurrence

Vanadium is never found unbound in nature but it does occur in about 65 different minerals among which are patronite (VS₄), vanadinite [Pb₅(VO₄)3Cl], and carnotite [K₂(UO₂)₂(VO₄)₂.3H₂O]. Vanadium is also present in bauxite, and in carbon containing deposits such as crude oil, coal, oil shale and tar sands. The spectra of vanadium has also been detected in light from the sun and some other stars.

Much of the vanadium metal being produced is now made by calcium reduction of V₂O₅ in a pressure vessel. Vanadium is usually recovered as a by-product or co-product, and so world resources of the element are not really indicative of available supply.

Isolation

Vanadium is available commercially and production of a sample in the laboratory is not normally required. Commercially, routes leading to metallic vanadium as main product are not usually required as enough is produced as byproduct in other processes.

In industry, heating of vanadium ore or residues from other processes with salt, NaCl, or sodium carbonate, Na₂CO₃, at about 850°C gives sodium vanadate, NaVO₃. This is dissolved in water and acidified to give a red solid which in turn is melted to form a crude form of vanadium pentoxide, "V₂O₅". Reduction of vanadium pentoxide with calcium, Ca, gives pure vanadium. An alternative suitable for small scales is the reduction of vanadium pentachloride, VCl₅, with hydrogen, H₂, or magnesium, Mg. Many other methods are also in use.

Industrially, most vanadium is used as an additive to improve steels. Rather than proceed via pure vanadium metal it is often sufficient to react the crude of vanadium pentoxide, "V₂O₅", with crude iron. This produces ferrovanadium suitable for further work.

Compounds

Vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) is used as a catalyst, dye and color-fixer. It is extremely toxic if inhaled, and dangerous for the environment.

Vanadyl sulfate (VOSO₄), also called vanadium(IV) sulfate oxide hydrate, is used as a relatively controversial dietary supplement, primarily for increasing insulin levels and body-building. Whether it works for the latter purpose has not been proven, and there is some evidence that athletes who take it are merely experiencing a placebo effect. It is toxic in high doses.

Isotopes

Naturally occurring vanadium is composed of 1 stable isotope ⁵¹V and one radioactive isotope ⁵⁰V with a half-life of 1.5×10¹⁷ years. 24 artificial radioisotopes have been characterized (in the range of mass number between 40 and 65) with the most stable being ⁴⁹V with a half-life of 330 days, and ⁴⁸V with a half-life of 15.9735 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 1 hour and the majority of these have half lives that are less than 10 seconds. In 4 isotopes, metastable excited states were found (including 2 metastable states for ⁶⁰V).

The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, ⁵¹V, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta decay. The primary decay products before ⁵¹V are element 22 (titanium) isotopes and the primary products after are element 24 (chromium) isotopes.

Precautions

Powdered metallic vanadium is a fire hazard, and unless known otherwise, all vanadium compounds should be considered highly toxic. Generally, the higher the oxidation state of vanadium, the more toxic the compound is. The most dangerous one is vanadium pentoxide.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set an exposure limit of 0.05 mg/m³ for vanadium pentoxide dust and 0.1 mg/m³ for vanadium pentoxide fumes in workplace air for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour work week.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recommended that 35 mg/m³ of vanadium be considered immediately dangerous to life and health. This is the exposure level of a chemical that is likely to cause permanent health problems or death.

References

Los Alamos National Laboratory – Vanadium

External links