Tantalum capacitors are one of the invisible backbones of the high tech industry. Every high speed digital circuit from cell phones to computers to talking dolls has tantalum capacitors scattered around the circuit board to absorb voltage spikes caused by the switching of the circuits. So fundamental are these capacitors that there has actually been an attempt to get people to boycott cell phones because of the environmental harm done by tantalum mining. (It didn't get very far.) Tantalum is also used in high-end artificial body parts, including hip joints and arterial stents. The prices of such medical devices are breathtaking. Detailed Technical Data Compare at other websites: www.webelements.com Los Alamos National Labs Royal Society of Chemistry Toxicology Isotope information Minerals Translations and Etymology Science Fiction (Main Site) Comics Poetry (Main Site) Haiku (Main Site) Collections: Samples with Rotatable Images Samples with Sounds Coiled filament wire. Kindly donated by David Franco,who sent many elements after seeing the slashdot discussion. Source: David Franco Contributor: David Franco Acquired: 17 May, 2002 Price: Donated Size: 0.04" Purity: >99% Small rectangle of 0.1mm foil, 99.99% This small sample was kindly donated by George (not 007) Lazenby, who saw the slashdot discussion. It came in a lovely little plastic vial. George got this and the other samples he donated at a surplus auction of his highschool. It seems he was the only one there who appreciated the erbium foil. This sample and the others he sent had been donated to the school by a former student who worked at NIST (National Institute for Standards and Testing), where they had been used as x-ray calibration standards. This means they are probably very pure. Source: George (not 007) Lazenby Contributor: George (not 007) Lazenby Acquired: 24 May, 2002 Price: Donated Size: 1" Purity: 99.99% Large rectangle of heavy foil. This fabulous, quite valuable sample of tantalum was most graciously donated by .George (not 007) Lazenby, who saw the slashdot discussion. I don't know the exact thickness, but it's quite stiff and solid for a foil. It didn't quite fit under the tile, so I trimmed it square and carved an area over the sample hole so it could serve as a sub-lid underneath the wooden lid. George got this and the other samples he donated at a surplus auction of his highschool. It seems he was the only one there who appreciated the erbium foil. This sample and the others he sent had been donated to the school by a former student who worked at NIST (National Institute for Standards and Testing), where they had been used as x-ray calibration standards. This means they are probably very pure. In fact, analysis by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at the Center for Microanalysis of Materials, University of Illinois (partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant DEFG02-91-ER45439) indicates that it is basically pure tantalum within the detection limits of the instrument. Source: George (not 007) Lazenby Contributor: George (not 007) Lazenby Acquired: 9 June, 2002 Price: Donated Size: 3.5" Purity: >99.9% Length of rod, bent. This is a short length of rod, about 2 inches long and 5/16 inch diameter, obviously nipped off at both ends with some bolt butters or a sheer. It's fairly heavy, but not otherwise impressive compared to the same thing out of steel. Analysis by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at the Center for Microanalysis of Materials, University of Illinois (partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant DEFG02-91-ER45439) indicates it is pure tantalum within the detection limits of the machine. Source: Neil Lipson Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 12 July, 2002 Price: $10 Size: 2" Purity: >99.9% Electrodes. I got these tantalum electrodes on eBay. How do I know they are really tantalum? Because I trust in the basic goodness of the eBay community and have no doubt that every item is exactly what it's claimed to be, especially the elements. Source: eBay seller snooj Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 22 August, 2002 Price: $10 Size: 0.2" Purity: >90% Sample from the Red Green and Blue Company Element Set. The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order. The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples): Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company Acquired: 25 January, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: 99.95% Sample from the Everest Element Set. Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order. Source: Rob Accurso Contributor: Rob Accurso Acquired: 7 February, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: >99%