Cobalt

Cobalt was discovered by Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist, in 1739. Brandt was attempting to prove that the ability of certain minerals to color glass blue

Cobalt is used to make alloys for jet engines and gas turbines, magnetic steels and some types of stainless steels

The magnetic properties of cobalt are even more obvious in alloys. An alloy is made by melting and mixing two or more metal

In about 1741 he wrote, “As there are six kinds of metals, so I have also shown with reliable experiments… that there are also six kinds of half-metals: a new half-metal, namely cobalt regulus in addition to mercury, bismuth, zinc, and the reguluses of antimony and arsenic.”

Cobalt is usually recovered as a byproduct of mining and refining nickel, silver, lead, copper and iron.

Cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope of cobalt, is an important source of gamma rays and is used to treat some forms of cancer and as a medical tracer

Phase at Room Temperature: SolidElement Classification: MetalPeriod Number: 4 Group Number: 9

The word cobalt is derived from the German ‘kobold’, meaning goblin or elf

Cobalt in the Earth's crust is found only in chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron

Atomic Number: 27Atomic Weight: 58.933195Melting Point: 1495°C or 2723°FBoiling Point:2927°C or 5301°FDensity: 8.8 grams per cubic centimeter

COBALT