Uses of the Element Tellurium

Alloys

• Metallurgists often use tellurium to make metal alloys. When joined with copper and stainless steel, tellurium makes the metal easier to finish and prepare for the intended application. Tellurium is a minor additive for copper alloys, making the product easier to work with without reducing copper's conductive properties. This makes copper alloys more useful in electrical engineering. Tellurium is also added to stainless steel so it easier to mill. Tellurium makes lead stronger and more resistant to sulfuric acid.

  When tellurium is added to lead alloy, the durable product is more resistant to fatigue and vibration. When combined with cast iron, the tellurium influences the rate at which the steel cools, playing a role in metal smelting. In iron, tellurium serves as a carbide stabilizer. Stabilizers prevent other materials from changing.

Devices

• Tellurium is used in photoreceptors -- devices sensitive to light. Tellurium is also used to make thermoelectric devices in electronic products. Tellurium is an ingredient in blasting caps. Blasting caps are small and sensitive explosive devices used to detonate larger and less sensitive explosives.

  Tellurium is used to make battery plate protectors and electrical resistors. Resistors are devices designed to give resistance to other forces. Tellurium is used to make bismuth telluride, a gray powder used as a semiconductor. Semiconductors are substances with conductivity, or electron flow, between an insulator and most other metals.

Glass

• Tellurium can serve as a decorative pigment in glasses and ceramics. Tellurium dioxide will also form glass when the right materials are added and the product is cooled very quickly.

Flexible Materials

• Tellurium is used in rubber vulcanization, a chemical process making the product waterproof, more durable and less sticky. Tellurium dioxide is an acousto-optic material, meaning it influences the stress distribution of a material.