21 Facts About Bismuth

Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and atomic number 83.

Bismuth is both the most diamagnetic element and one of the least thermally conductive metals known.

Bismuth was long considered the element with the highest atomic mass whose nuclei do not spontaneously decay.

Bismuth was known to the Incas and used in a special bronze alloy for knives.

Bismuth is a brittle metal with a dark, silver-pink hue, often with an iridescent oxide tarnish showing many colors from yellow to blue.

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Bismuth is stable to both dry and moist air at ordinary temperatures.

Bismuth has the longest known alpha decay half-life, although tellurium-128 has a double beta decay half-life of over 2.

Bismuth-213 is found on the decay chain of neptunium-237 and uranium-233.

Bismuth chloride reacts with hydrogen chloride in ether solution to produce the acid.

Bismuth has always been produced mainly as a byproduct of lead refining, and thus the price usually reflected the cost of recovery and the balance between production and demand.

Bismuth used in galvanizing, and as a free-machining metallurgical additive.

Bismuth in uses where it is dispersed most widely include certain stomach medicines, paints, pearlescent cosmetics, and bismuth-containing bullets.

Bismuth has few commercial applications, and those applications that use it generally require small quantities relative to other raw materials.

Bismuth is an ingredient in some pharmaceuticals, although the use of some of these substances is declining.

Bismuth oxychloride is sometimes used in cosmetics, as a pigment in paint for eye shadows, hair sprays and nail polishes.

Bismuth vanadate is used as a light-stable non-reactive paint pigment, often as a replacement for the more toxic cadmium sulfide yellow and orange-yellow pigments.

Bismuth is used in metal alloys with other metals such as iron.

Bismuth has been evaluated as a replacement for lead in free-machining brasses for plumbing applications, although it does not equal the performance of leaded steels.

Bismuth is used to make free-machining steels and free-machining aluminium alloys for precision machining properties.

Bismuth is used as an alloying agent in production of malleable irons and as a thermocouple material.

Bismuth is used in aluminium-silicon cast alloys in order to refine silicon morphology.