GALLIUM

(Ga), chemical element, metal of main Group IIIa, or boron group, of the periodic table. It liquefies just above room temperature. Gallium was discovered (1875) by Paul-mile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, who observed its principal spectral lines while examining material separated from zinc blende. Soon afterward he isolated the metal and studied its properties, which coincided with those that Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev had predicted a few years earlier for eka-aluminum, the then undiscovered element lying between aluminum and indium in his periodic table. Though widely distributed at the Earth's surface, gallium does not occur free or concentrated in independent minerals, except for gallite, CuGaS 2, rare and economically insignificant. It is extracted as a by-product from zinc blende, iron pyrites, bauxite, and germanite. Silvery white and soft enough to be cut with a knife, gallium takes on a bluish tinge because of superficial oxidation. Unusual for its low melting point (about 30 C ), gallium also expands upon solidification and supercools readily, remaining a liquid at temperatures as low as 0 C (32 F). Gallium remains in the liquid phase over a temperature range of about 2,000 C (about 3,600 F) with a very low vapour pressure up to about 1,500 C (about 2,700 F), the longest useful liquid range of any element. The liquid metal clings to or wets glass and similar surfaces. The crystal structure of gallium is orthorhombic. Natural gallium consists of a mixture of two stable isotopes: gallium-69 (60.4 percent) and gallium-71 (39.6 percent). Somewhat similar to aluminum chemically, gallium slowly oxidizes in moist air until a protective film forms, and it becomes passive in cold nitric acid. Gallium does not react with water at temperatures up to 100 C (212 F) but reacts slowly with hydrochloric and other mineral acids to give the gallium ion, Ga3+. Gallium is amphoteric, reacting with sodium and potassium hydroxide solutions to yield a gallate and hydrogen gas. The halogens attack it vigorously. In most of its compounds gallium has an oxidation state of +3 and, in a few, +1. There is no evidence for authentic gallium(II) compounds. The dihalides, for example, contain monovalent and trivalent gallium in a one-to-one ratio. With the main Group V elementsphosphorus, arsenic, and antimonygallium forms compounds that have semiconductor properties. Gallium antimonide, GaSb, and gallium arsenide, GaAs, are used in electronic devices to perform such functions as voltage rectification and amplification. The arsenide and the phosphide, GaP, are electroluminescent; the arsenide emits infrared light, while the phosphide radiates in the visible spectrum. Gallium has been considered as a possible heat-exchange medium in nuclear reactors, although it has a high neutron cross section. Radioactive gallium-72 shows some promise in the study of bone cancer; a compound of this isotope is absorbed by the cancerous portion of the bone. atomic number 31 atomic weight 69.72 melting point 29.78 C boiling point 2,403 C specific gravity 5.904 (29.6 C) valence 3 electronic config. 2-8-18-3 or(Ar)3d104s24p1