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2011 years of the international chemical

Boron-Aluminum-Gallium-Indium-Thallium, as chemists learned to recite the names of the elements of the third "period" as you call columns of Table of Mendeleev. Boron and aluminum, we knew what they were, but that index, named after the charming, very few knew.

Indium was discovered in 1863 by Ferdinand Reich (1799-1882) and Theodor Richter (1824-1898) who had called so because it emits radiation with a line of indigo blue color, looks like shiny metal, silvery gray, soft, and has remained a curiosity for many decades. In 1925 there was only one gram in the world, extracted from the dross of zinc ore processing, the demand for indium increases during the Second World War (1939-1945) when it was discovered that the ductile metal is well suited as a lubricant of aircraft engine bearings fast.

Its output increased slowly until a few tonnes per year, absorbed by the electricity and nuclear, until it was discovered the use in electronic equipment and semiconductor properties were recognized. Photovoltaic solar cells are made of indium phosphide and gallium arsenide.

But the explosion of the use of indium, especially in the form of indium tin oxide, there was the invention of liquid crystal displays for televisions and computers. Indium is produced industrially for the processing of by-products of zinc (an example of recovery of goods profits from waste) and recycling of its waste and its production has increased from 60 tonnes per year in 1950 to approximately 600 tonnes per year in 2008. The largest producer of indium, as usual, China (330 tonnes / year), followed by Japan, Canada and Korea. More news and commodity index statistics are available at the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS .

The Indian market is turbulent, such as metals and strategic goods, the commodities. Its price was $ 100 per kilo in 2002 and $ 1000 per kg at the end of 2005, the summer of 2009 had fallen to $ 300 per kg to go up in October 2009 to $ 450 per kg (about 300 € / kg), and rise again in September 2010, $ 560 / kg (approximately 430 € / kg). You can follow the evolution of prices of indium here. This turbulence is due to the cost of production, the fear that the future availability of indium is limited (some speak of reserves for a few years) than to the demands of the consumer electronics market, but also to the fact that other metals could be replaced in many applications: the hafnium control rods in nuclear reactors, gallium arsenide solar cells.

Curiously enough a small production of India had in Italy in the zinc refinery of Croton, whose toxic wastes that are buried underground schools and streets of the city thrived. In 1990 the company Pertusola Crotone produced 11 tons of indium, in 1992 20 tonnes, by 1995 the production has ceased and the plant was shut down, just when increased demand for this metal. Another case of bad weather merchandise.