An image of an abstracted human skull, banded with strips or ‘plates’. This reflects the use of the element in medical prosthetics. The background design is based on a scene from an Ancient Greek vase depicting the mythological figure Tantalus, a reference to the origin of the element’s name.

Fact Box

Uses

One of the main uses of tantalum is in the production of electronic components. An oxide layer which forms on the surface of tantalum can act as an insulating (dielectric) layer. Because tantalum can be used to coat other metals with a very thin layer, a high capacitance can be achieved in a small volume. This makes tantalum capacitors attractive for portable electronics such as mobile phones.

Tantalum causes no immune response in mammals, so has found wide use in the making of surgical implants. It can replace bone, for example in skull plates; as foil or wire it connects torn nerves; and as woven gauze it binds abdominal muscle.

It is very resistant to corrosion and so is used in equipment for handling corrosive materials. It has also found uses as electrodes for neon lights, AC/DC rectifiers and in glass for special lenses.

History

Tantalum was reported as a new metal in 1802 by Anders Gustav Ekeberg at Uppsala University, Sweden. However, when William Wollaston analysed the minerals from which it had been extracted he declared it was identical to niobium which has been discovered the year previously. It was as a result of their similarity that there was confusion regarding their identification. These two elements often occur together and, being chemically very similar, were difficult to separate by the methods available at the time of the discovery.

It was not until 1846 that Heinrich Rose separated tantalum and niobium and proved conclusively that they were different elements, and yet his sample of tantalum was still somewhat impure, and it was not until 1903 that pure tantalum was produced by Werner von Bolton