Element Beryllium, Be, Alkaline Earth Metal
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Beryllium History
Beryllium was discovered by Louis Vauquelin in 1798 as the oxide in beryllium earth (glucina, beryllium oxide, BeO) when this French scientist was investigating general properties of beryl and emerald precious gemstones. The name beryl was used in Greek; Latin antique sources as well as in ancient Russian literary effort "Corpus ("Izbornik") of Svyatoslav" of 1073, where beryllium was mentioned as "veryllion". Friedrich Wohler and A. A. Bussy independently isolated the metal in 1828 by reacting potassium and beryllium chloride. However it was impossible to melt it because of impurities. Only in 1898 French chemist Paul Lebeau isolated pure metal beryllium crystals.
Beryllium Occurrence
Beryllium as well as its neighbors, lithium and boron, is relatively low-abundant in the Earth crust, its concentration is approx. 2x10-4%. In spite of that beryllium is not a trace element. Beryllium is found in a number of minerals such as beryl in pegmatite surface deposits, crystallized in the granite domes. It is known about gigantic beryl crystals 1 meter long and with weight several tons.
Beryllium is an essential constituent of about 54 minerals, the most important of which is beryl [Be3Al2(SiO3)6]. It forms many colored varieties. Aquamarine and emerald are precious forms of beryl. Emerald is colored green by 2% of chromium. Aquamarine has a delicate blue or turquoise color due to iron (II) impurities. If it contains manganese instead of chromium, beryl becomes pink morganite, and iron (III) ions make the beryl, called heliodor, yellow.
The most important industrial beryllium minerals are also phenakite 2BeOxSiO2, bertrandite (Be4Si2O7(OH)2), and helvite (Mn,Fe,Zn)4[BeSiO4]3S. On average, world's beryllium resources are estimated more than 80 thousand tons (corresponding to the beryllium content) 65% of which are localized in the USA. The main deposits are in Spor Mountain, Utah, which is the main supplier of bertrandite ore in the world, approximately 19 thousand tons in the end of 2000. There is an insignificant amount of beryl in the USA. In other countries the biggest suppliers of beryllium are China, Russia and Kazakhstan.
Beryllium apparently does not play any significant role in living processes. Its content in the average human being organism is approximately 0.036 mg, each intake with the food - around 0.01 mg.
Beryllium Neighbours
Chemical Elements Periodic Table | |