Zone melting germanium ingot material

 1. Introduction:

Germanium, tin and lead belong to the same family in the periodic table. The latter two were discovered and used by ancient people, but germanium has not been exploited on an industrial scale for a long time. This is not due to the low content of germanium in the earth's crust, but because it is one of the most dispersed elements in the earth's crust, and there are few germanium bearing ores.

2. Production method

 hydrogen reduction method  is a method of producing metal by reducing metal oxides with hydrogen at high temperature. Compared with other methods (such as reduction method, zinc reduction method, etc.), the properties of the product are easier to control and the purity is higher. It is widely used in the production of tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, iron, germanium and silicon.

3. Content distribution

Germanium is widely distributed in nature. Trace amounts of germanium are found in copper, iron ore, sulfide ore, rock, soil and spring water. The content of germanium in the earth's crust is 7 parts per million, which is less than oxygen, silicon and other common elements, but more than arsenic, uranium, mercury, iodine, silver, gold and other elements. However, germanium is very dispersed, almost no more concentrated germanium ore, so it is called "dilute metal". The discovered germanium ores are chalcogenite (containing 5-7% germanium), germanite (containing 10% germanium) and chalcogenite (containing 7% germanium). The germanium content of germanium ore is 200ppm and 393ppm, and the color is cyan gray and safflower.

4. Germanium uses:

It is widely used in semiconductor and detector, infrared optical industry, production of germanium single crystal, germanium alloy and other germanium deep processing products.