Department of Chemistry
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Waterloo, Ontario,
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Chem13News@uwaterloo.ca
Philatelic Table of the Elements
Index sorted by teaching category
Legend: Element name – Stamp country
Description of stamp;
Teaching tie-in categories
Test of Chinese hydrogen bomb;
nuclear chemistry in hydrogen bomb
Tokamak fusion reactor
Will fusion ever become a viable clean energy source?
Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats; Lithium resources for battery production/resource development in underdeveloped economies
Emeralds; Legal battle over ownership of 180,000 carat Brazilian Bahia emerald
Colmanite CaB3O4(OH)3 H2O; boron production
Petrochemical industry, carbon compound; energy, carbon emissions, global warming
Alkaloids, quinine discovery;
medicines from plants, malaria
Ozone; protective effects of ozone layer, ozone depleting chemicals, atmosphere
Moissan discovery of fluorine; role of fluorine in the Manhattan Project, uranium enrichment
Las Vegas neon sign; neon lights
Salt Cay; Importance of salt mining in history of Caribbean nations
Victor Grignard; Organometallic chemistry, Nobel Prize
Cryolite Na3AlF6 Hall-Heroult process;
history of aluminum & aluminum refining
Havelock Asbestos Mine; health impacts
Phosphate Mining; resource utilization in underdeveloped economies
Sulfur Production; Ottoman "Gunpowder Empire"
DDT Insecticide; pros and cons of DDT use throughout its history, malaria
Argon compounds in Crab Nebula
Noble gases are not inert; detection of chemical species in outer space
Justus von Liebig; plant nutrients, law of the minimum
Lime burning; manufacture of building material
MiG-29; alloys aerospace applications
Titanium dredging; resource utilization in underdeveloped economies
Vanadium production; steel additives
Chromite; stainless steel
Manganese production in Moanda;
resource utilization in underdeveloped economies
Iron pillar of Delhi; rust resistant
Cobalt-60 radiation therapy; radioisotopes in medicine
Garnier and nickel mining; resource utilization in underdeveloped economies
Copper mine; copper production in ancient Cyprus
Jean-Jacques Dony; zinc discovery & refining
Mendeleev's notes; history of periodic table
Transistors; use in electronic components
Ehrlich Salvarsan Arsenic Drug Syphilis; "magic bullet" concept in medicine
Berzelius selenium sample electron microscopic view; new battery technologies
Dead Sea Works, world's largest bromine supplier; chemistry of bromine production
Metric system centennial; krypton emission line definition of metre
Kirchhoff discoverer of rubidium; spectroscopy in discovery of elements
Strontianite SrCO3; fireworks
Superconducting YBa2CuOx; superconducting materials
Zircons; use in geological dating
Columbite (Fe,Mn)Nb2O6; "blood coltan" funding for guerilla wars in Africa
Fleurus IRE Reactor and Cyclotron
production of Mo-99 for medical application & preparation of Tc-99m
Computed Tomography (CT) Scan; technetium-99m medical imaging
Platinum minerals industry; ruthenium and platinum production, the Bafokeng people "Africa's platinum tribe"
Air Pollution; catalytic converters, continued use of leaded gasoline in some third world nations
Slovnaft Petrochemicals; petroleum refining, transition metal catalysts
World's largest silver producer; history of silver mining in Mexico
Greenockite CdS mineral; solar cells
Solar Energy; CIGS solar cells
Tin mining; history of tin production in Thailand
Jabir Ibn Hayyan; early alchemical investigations of antimony & other elements
Franz-Joseph Müller discovery; solar cells
Iodine deficiency; thyroid health, iodinated salt
Medimorp anesthesia unit; anesthesia, use as performance enhancing drug
North Sea oil rig; cesium brines in oil extraction
Barite BaSO4 mineral; Why is this mineral named barium & the mineral, barite?
Electric car; batteries for electric vehicles
Berzelius birth anniversary; Berzelius' contributions to chemistry including discovery of cerium
Carl Auer-Welsbach birth anniversary; discoverer of praseodymium
Wind power; magnets for wind turbines
Bohuslav Brauner birth anniversary; contributions to chemistry including prediction of undiscovered element promethium
Nuclear reactor; neutron capture/nuclear reactor control rods
Compact fluorescent lighting; How do compact fluorescent lights work?
Johan Gadolin birth anniversary; discoverer
Color television; terbium in phosphors
Sonar; Tefenol-D magnetostrictive sensor for sonar
Chinese rare earths mining industry; paradox of environmental damage in China and production of rare earths for green technologies
Fiber optics; fiber optic cables
Eye surgery; thulium lasers
Rare earths plant; production of rare earth elements from monazite sand
Earth cross section; recent redating of earth's crust using lutetium Isotopes
George de Hevesy Nobel Prize; medical radio- imaging
Hip replacement; biocompatible materials
Bicentennial tungsten discovery, Juan and Fausto Elhuyar; high strength steel
Jet engine; rhenium alloys
Carl Auer osmium lamp; incandescence
Mexican dinosaur; iridium and Alvarez Extinction Hypothesis. Yucatán asteroid
Platinum dredging del Choco state; history of platinum production in Colombia
Gold mining; impacts of authorized & unauthorized gold mining in Africa
Paracelsus; alchemical symbols
Lorandite TlAsS2 mineral; Allchar thallium deposit in solar neutrino detection LOREX experiment
Galena PbS mineral; lead pollution in La Oroya, Peru, one of world’s most polluted places
Bismutina Bi2S3 mineral; high altitude mining in Bolivia
Pierre Curie co-discoverer of polonium; role of polonium in Manhattan Project, "urchin" initiator
Horia Hulubei; competing claims to discovery of astatine
Earthquake anniversary; Radon releases to predict earthquakes?
Discovery by Frederic & Irene Joliot-Curie; work of Marguerite Perey at Curie Institute
Marie Sklodowska Curie discoverer; radium therapy in medicine
Trace quantities of actinium in pitchblende; uranium ore from Shinkolobwe mine in the Congo (Zaire) source of uranium for Manhattan Project
Auer's thorium mantle gas lamp; thorium pollution around superfund site(s) Camden, NJ Auer Lamp manufacturing site(s)
Frederick Soddy; partial credit for discovery of protactinium isotopes, Nobel Prize
Uranium fission; Otto Hahn and discovery
of nuclear fission
Fallout from above ground nuclear tests; nuclear arms control
Israel's acknowledged nuclear facility; Israel's nuclear weapons program, breeder reactors
Chernobyl Accident anniversary; americium in radioactive fallout
Curies in Lab; Curies' contributions to chemistry; uranium ore for radium production from Madagascar
Ernest Lawrence discovery of berkelium with cyclotron; Lawrence's role in Manhattan Project; cyclotrons for synthesizing elements
Landmine prohibition; neutron source for mine detection systems
Ivy Mike test at Enewetak Atoll; first production element 99; nuclear testing, discovery of synthetic elements
Enrico Fermi (with famous mistake in equation on board); Fermi's role in Manhattan Project
Rutherford and Einstein; production of mendelevium via einsteinium bombardment with alpha particles
10th anniversary JINR
Lawrence with first cyclotron; Lawrence's role in Manhattan Project, cyclotrons for synthesizing elements
Electrons orbiting Rutherford's head; Rutherford's contributions to chemistry & physics, Nobel Prize
20th anniversary JINR; discovery
20th anniversary JINR; discovery
Niels Bohr; Bohr's contribution to Manhattan Project, Bohr model of atom
IUPAC; element naming and disputes including hassium
Lise Meitner; discovery of nuclear fission
Nickel and lead; synthesis of darmstadtium via bombardment of lead by nickel
Roentgen and discovery of X-Rays; X-rays in medicine
Hermann von Helmholtz; super heavy element synthesis, GSI Helmholtz Laboratory
Zinc mining - Bismuth ore; nihonium synthesis from zinc and bismuth nuclei
Georgy Flerov birth anniversary; Soviet nuclear weapons program
60th anniversary JINR; discovery of moscovium
25th anniversary JINR
Oak Ridge Reactor
Yuri Oganessian