Germanium | Chemistry

Diamond Jenness Secondary School, Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada

Germanium, 32, Diamond Jenness Secondary School, Hay River NT

Germanium: The name Germanium comes from the Latin Germania for Germany, the homeland of Clemens A. Winkler who discovered it in 1886 as predicted by Mendeleev in 1871. As a semi conductive metalloid it is used in the electronics industry for transistors and semiconductors. Within my tile I've shown the German colours of black, red, and gold. The infra-red night vision goggles which use germanium within its lenses illuminates the atomic number 32 on an electronic thermometer, and the symbol Ge from the darker background. The molecular shape is represented in the upper left corner. The cell phone represents the element's role in wireless systems, computer chips, and the internet, mainly fiber optics. The colour of powdered Germanium is represented by the grey mass below the cell phone.

Original artwork by Kyla Milne Grade 8 art class, Sarah Johnson, Diamond Jenness Secondary School, Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada

Atomic properties*

Name:

Germanium

Symbol:

Ge

Atomic number:

32

Atomic mass:

72.64 amu

Melting point:

938.25°C

Boiling point:

2833°C

Density:

5.323 g/cm³

Electronegativity:

2.01

# of Isotopes:

5

State:

Solid

Colour:

Greyish-white±

Classification:

Semi-metallic±

* Haynes, W. M. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 91st edition: http://www.hbcponline.com/ Retrieved April 7, 2011

± Winter, M. (2010). Home of the Periodic Table. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from Web Elements: http://www.webelements.com/