16 Facts About Tellurium

Tellurium is a chemical element with the symbol Te and atomic number 52.

Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur, all three of which are chalcogens.

Tellurium is far more common in the Universe as a whole than on Earth.

Tellurium-bearing compounds were first discovered in 1782 in a gold mine in Kleinschlatten, Transylvania by Austrian mineralogist Franz-Joseph Muller von Reichenstein, although it was Martin Heinrich Klaproth who named the new element in 1798 after the Latin 'earth'.

Tellurium has no biological function, although fungi can use it in place of sulfur and selenium in amino acids such as tellurocysteine and telluromethionine.

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Tellurium is a semiconductor that shows a greater electrical conductivity in certain directions depending on atomic alignment; the conductivity increases slightly when exposed to light .

Tellurium was discovered in the 18th century in a gold ore from the mines in Kleinschlatten, near today's city of Alba Iulia, Romania.

Tellurium is produced mainly in the United States, Peru, Japan and Canada.

Tellurium belongs to the chalcogen family of elements on the periodic table, which includes oxygen, sulfur, selenium and polonium: Tellurium and selenium compounds are similar.

Tellurium dioxide is formed by heating tellurium in air, where it burns with a blue flame.

Tellurium suboxide is used in the media layer of rewritable optical discs, including ReWritable Compact Discs, ReWritable Digital Video Discs, and ReWritable Blu-ray Discs.

Tellurium dioxide is used to create acousto-optic modulators for confocal microscopy.

Tellurium is used in the phase change memory chips developed by Intel.

Tellurium has no known biological function, although fungi can incorporate it in place of sulfur and selenium into amino acids such as telluro-cysteine and telluro-methionine.

Tellurium accumulation seems to account for a major part of the toxicity effects.

Tellurium poisoning is particularly difficult to treat as many chelation agents used in the treatment of metal poisoning will increase the toxicity of tellurium.