tellurium

A brittle, silvery-white, rare metallic element usually found in combination with gold and other metals, produced commercially as a byproduct of the electrolytic refining of copper and used in compact discs, semiconductors, ceramics, and blasting caps and (in the form of bismuth telluride) in thermoelectric devices. In alloys it improves the machinability of stainless steel or copper, and increases the durability and hardness of lead. Atomic number 52; atomic weight 127.60; melting point 449.5°C; boiling point 988°C; specific gravity 6.23 (20°C); valence 2, 4, 6. cross-reference: Periodic Table.

Same as tellurion.

Chemical symbol, Te; atomic weight, 125. One of the rarer elements, occurring in nature in small quantity in the native state and also in combination with various metals, as with gold and silver in the form of graphic tellurium, or sylvanite, with gold, lead, and antimony as nagyagite, and in several other mostly very rare mineral combinations.

A rare nonmetallic element, analogous to sulphur and selenium, occasionally found native as a substance of a silver-white metallic luster, but usually combined with metals, as with gold and silver in the mineral sylvanite, with mercury in Coloradoite, etc. Symbol Te. Atomic weight 125.2.

See Sylvanite.

nagyagite; — called also black tellurium.

The chemical element with atomic number 52. Symbol: Te.

A variant spelling of tellurion.

a brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur; it is used in alloys and as a semiconductor; occurs mainly as tellurides in ores of copper and nickel and silver and gold