Pressure-temperature phase diagram of bismuth. īismuth was also known to the Incas and used (along with the usual copper and tin) in a special bronze alloy for knives. Miners in the age of alchemy also gave bismuth the name tectum argenti, or "silver being made" in the sense of silver still in the process of being formed within the Earth. This was based on observation of the metals and their physical properties. Agricola (1546) states that bismuth is a distinct metal in a family of metals including tin and lead. Because bismuth has been known since ancient times, no one person is credited with its discovery. The element was confused in early times with tin and lead because of its resemblance to those elements. The New Latin bisemutium (coined by Georgius Agricola, who Latinized many German mining and technical words) is from the German Wismuth, itself perhaps from weiße Masse, meaning "white mass". The name possibly comes from obsolete German Bismuth, Wismut, Wissmuth (early 16th century), perhaps related to Old High German hwiz ("white"). The name bismuth dates to around 1665 and is of uncertain etymology. Presently, around a third of global bismuth production is dedicated to needs formerly met by lead.īismuth metal has been known since ancient times and it was one of the first 10 metals to have been discovered. As the toxicity of lead and the cost of its environmental remediation became more apparent during the 20th century, suitable bismuth alloys have gained popularity as replacements for lead. Bismuth has unusually low toxicity for a heavy metal. Bismuth's unusual propensity to expand as it solidifies is responsible for some of its uses, as in the casting of printing type. They are used in cosmetics pigments and a few pharmaceuticals, notably bismuth subsalicylate, used to treat diarrhea. The name may come from mid- sixteenth century New Latin translations of the German words weiße Masse or Wismuth, meaning 'white mass', which were rendered as bisemutum or bisemutium.īismuth compounds account for about half the global production of bismuth. Before modern analytical methods bismuth's metallurgical similarities to lead and tin often led it to be confused with those metals. īismuth metal has been known since ancient times. The metal's only primordial isotope, bismuth-209, experiences alpha decay at such a rate that its half-life is more than the estimated age of the universe. However, in 2003 it was discovered to be weakly radioactive. Bismuth is both the most diamagnetic element and one of the least thermally conductive metals known.īismuth was long considered the element with the highest atomic mass whose nuclei do not spontaneously decay. Further oxidation under heat can give bismuth a vividly iridescent appearance due to thin-film interference. Surface oxidation generally gives samples of the metal a somewhat rosy cast. It is a brittle metal with a silvery-white color when freshly produced. The free element is 86% as dense as lead. Elemental bismuth occurs naturally, and its sulfide and oxide forms are important commercial ores. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and atomic number 83.
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