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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.
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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%
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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%
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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%
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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%
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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%
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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%
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