Niobium Uses

Steel

• Welders use niobium to bond stainless steel components. Also, steel manufacturers add small amounts of a niobium-iron compound known as ferroniobium to their products to increase strength, as well as temperature and corrosion resistance. Steel containing niobium is used widely in the aerospace, chemical manufacturing, electric power and automotive industries.

Superconducting Magnets

• Alloyed with titanium, people can extrude niobium into a superconducting wire that they then can mold into magnets that do not lose their superconductivity when placed in external magnetic fields. Tin-niobium and aluminum-niobium superconducting alloys also exist. The metals see uses in gyroscopes for spacecraft, as well as magnetic resonance imaging devices.

Particle Accelerators

• High-energy physics researchers use some electron accelerators that include chambers cast from pure or alloyed niobium. When chilled to near absolute zero, these niobium chambers become both highly magnetic and superconducting, which permits researchers to increase the speed of subatomic particles without using ever-increasing amounts of electricity.

Glass Lenses and Screens

• Coating glass with a superfine niobium powder improves the glass's ability to transmit light without absorbing or refracting it. The coating also makes glass more glare-resistant. Niobium-coated glass has applications for camera lenses, along with television and computer screens. Niobium also sees use in protective coatings for ceramic capacitors.

Sodium Vapor Lamps

• A niobium-zirconium alloy serves as a material for the metallic base of some sodium vapor lamps. The alloy withstands the high heat the lamp generates and does not become brittle with extended use.

Jewelry

• In its natural state, niobium has a dull silvery color. When the pure element is heated or passed through an electric field, however, it can take on many colors, ranging from blue to green and from gold to red. This property has made niobium and increasingly popular choice for jewelers who want to make colored metallic earrings, studs, brooches, pendants and pins.