There is a kind of emerald crystal, dazzling gem called beryl. It used to be a treasure for the nobles to enjoy, but today it has become a treasure of the working people.
Why do we also regard beryl as a treasure? This is not because it has a beautiful and attractive appearance, but because it contains a precious rare metal – beryllium.
The meaning of “beryllium” is “emerald”. After almost 30 years, people reduced beryllium oxide and beryllium chloride with active metal calcium and potassium, and obtained the first metal beryllium with low purity. It took another nearly seventy years before beryllium was processed on a small scale. In the past three decades, the production of beryllium has surged year by year. Now, the “hidden name” period of beryllium has passed, and hundreds of tons of beryllium are produced every year.
Seeing this, some children may ask such a question: Why was beryllium discovered so early, but its industrial application was so late?
The key is in the purification of beryllium. It is very difficult to purify beryllium from beryllium ore, and beryllium especially likes to “clean”. As long as beryllium contains a little impurity, its performance will be greatly affected. change and lose many good qualities.
Of course, the situation has changed a lot now, and we have been able to use modern scientific methods to produce very high-purity metal beryllium. Many of the properties of beryllium are well known to us: its specific gravity is one-third lighter than that of aluminum; its strength is similar to that of steel, its heat transfer ability is three times that of steel, and it is a good conductor of metals; its ability to transmit X-rays is the strongest, and it has ” Metal Glass”.
With so many excellent properties, it is no wonder that people call it “steel of light metals”!
Indomitable beryllium bronze
At first, because the smelting technology was not up to standard, the smelted beryllium contained impurities, which was brittle, difficult to process, and easily oxidized when heated. Therefore, a small amount of beryllium was only used in special circumstances, such as the light-transmitting window of an X-ray tube. , parts of neon lights, etc.
Later, people opened up a broad and important new field for the application of beryllium – making alloys, especially making beryllium copper alloys – beryllium bronze.
As we all know, copper is much softer than steel and is not as resilient and resistant to corrosion. However, when some beryllium was added to copper, the properties of copper changed dramatically. Beryllium bronze containing 1% to 3.5% beryllium has excellent mechanical properties, enhanced hardness, excellent elasticity, high corrosion resistance, and high electrical conductivity. A spring made of beryllium bronze can be compressed hundreds of millions of times.
The indomitable beryllium bronze has recently been used to manufacture deep-sea probes and submarine cables, which is of great significance to the development of marine resources.
Another valuable feature of nickel-containing beryllium bronze is that it does not spark when struck. This feature is useful for dynamite factories. You think, flammable and explosive materials are afraid of fire, such as explosives and detonators, which will explode when they see fire. And iron hammers, drills and other tools will emit sparks when they are used. Obviously, it is most suitable to use this nickel-containing beryllium bronze to make these tools. In addition, nickel-containing beryllium bronze will not be attracted by magnets and will not be magnetized by magnetic fields, so it is good for making anti-magnetic parts. Material.
Didn’t I say earlier that beryllium has the nickname of “metallic glass”? In recent years, beryllium, which is small in specific gravity, high in strength and good in elasticity, has been used as a reflector in high-precision TV faxes. The effect is really good, and it only takes a few minutes to send a photo.
Building a “housing” for the atomic boiler
Although beryllium has many uses, among many elements, it is still an unknown “little person” and does not receive people’s attention. But in the 1950s, the “fate” of beryllium turned for the better, and it became a hot commodity for scientists.
Why is this? It turned out to be like this: in a coal-free boiler – an atomic reactor, in order to liberate a large amount of energy from the nucleus, it is necessary to bombard the nucleus with a great force, causing the nucleus to split, just like bombarding a solid explosive with a cannonball Depot, the same as making the explosive depot explode. The “cannonball” used to bombard the nucleus is called neutron, and beryllium is a very efficient “neutron source” that can provide a large number of neutron cannonballs. It is not enough to “ignite” only neutrons in the atomic boiler. After ignition, it is necessary to make it really “ignite and burn”.
The neutron bombards the nucleus, the nucleus splits, and the atomic energy is released, and new neutrons are produced at the same time. The speed of new neutrons is extremely fast, reaching tens of thousands of kilometers per second. Such fast neutrons must be slowed down and turned into slow neutrons, so that they can easily continue to bombard other atomic nuclei and cause new splits, one to two, two to four… Continuously developing a “chain reaction” The atomic fuel in the atomic boiler is really “burned”, because beryllium has a strong “braking” ability to neutrons, so it has become a highly efficient moderator in the atomic reactor.
This is not to mention that in order to prevent neutrons from running out of the reactor, a “cordon” – a neutron reflector – needs to be set up around the reactor to order those neutrons that attempt to “cross the border” to return to the reaction area. In this way, on the one hand, it can prevent invisible rays from harming human health and protect the safety of staff; on the other hand, it can reduce the number of neutrons escaping, save “ammunition”, and maintain the smooth progress of nuclear fission.
Beryllium oxide has a small specific gravity, high hardness, a melting point as high as 2,450 degrees Celsius, and can reflect neutrons back like a mirror reflects light. It is a good material for building the “house” of an atomic boiler.
Now, almost all kinds of atomic reactors use beryllium as a neutron reflector, especially when building small atomic boilers for various vehicles. Building a large atomic reactor often requires two tons of polymetallic beryllium.
Play a role in the aviation industry
The development of the aviation industry requires aircraft to fly faster, higher, and farther. Of course, beryllium, which is light in weight and strong in strength, can also show its skills in this regard.
Some beryllium alloys are good materials for making aircraft rudders, wing boxes and metal components of jet engines. After many components on modern fighters are made of beryllium, due to the weight reduction, the assembly part is reduced, which makes the aircraft move more quickly and flexibly. There is a newly designed supersonic fighter, the beryllium aircraft, which can fly at speeds of up to 4,000 kilometers per hour, more than three times the speed of sound. In the future atomic planes and short-distance take-off and landing planes, beryllium and beryllium alloys will definitely get more applications.
After entering the 1960s, the amount of beryllium in rockets, missiles, spacecraft, etc. has also increased dramatically.
Beryllium is the best conductor of metals. Many supersonic aircraft braking devices are now made of beryllium, because it has excellent heat absorption and heat dissipation properties, and the heat generated when “braking” is quickly dissipated. [NextPage]
When artificial earth satellites and spacecraft travel through the atmosphere at high speed, the friction between the body and the air molecules will generate high temperatures. Beryllium acts as their “heat jacket”, which absorbs a lot of heat and excites it quickly, which prevents excessive temperature rise and ensures flight safety.
Beryllium is also a highly efficient rocket fuel. Beryllium releases enormous amounts of energy during combustion. The heat released per kilogram of beryllium is as high as 15,000 kcal, which is a high-quality rocket fuel.
The cure for “occupational disease”
It is a normal physiological phenomenon that people will feel tired after working and laboring for a period of time. However, many metals and alloys also “fatigue”. The difference is that the fatigue disappears automatically after people rest for a while, and people can continue to work, but metals and alloys do not. Things can no longer be used.
What a pity! How to treat this “occupational disease” of metals and alloys?
Scientists have found a “panacea” to cure this “occupational disease”. It is beryllium. If a small amount of beryllium is added to steel and made into a spring for a car, it can withstand 14 million impacts without fatigue. Mark of.
sweet metal
Do metals also have a sweet taste? Of course not, so why is the title “Sweet Metals”?
It turns out that some metal compounds are sweet, so people call this kind of gold “sweet metal”, and beryllium is one of them.
But never touch beryllium because it is toxic. As long as there is one milligram of beryllium dust in every cubic meter of air, it will cause people to contract acute pneumonia – beryllium lung disease. The vast number of workers on the metallurgical front in our country launched an attack on beryllium poisoning and finally reduced the content of beryllium in one cubic meter of air to less than 1/100,000 gram, which has satisfactorily solved the protection problem of beryllium poisoning.
Compared with beryllium, the compound of beryllium is more toxic. The compound of beryllium will form a soluble colloidal substance in animal tissues and plasma, and then chemically react with hemoglobin to generate a new substance, thereby causing tissue and organ to develop. Various lesions, beryllium in the lungs and bones, can also cause cancer. Although the beryllium compound is sweet, it is the “tiger’s butt” and must not be touched.