Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a post-transition metal in group 14 of the periodic table of elements, it is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, which contains stannic oxide, SnO2. Tin shows a chemical similarity to both of its neighbors in group 14, germanium and lead, has two main oxidation states, +2 and the more stable +4. Tin is the 49th most abundant element and has, with 10 stable isotopes, the largest number of stable isotopes in the periodic table, thanks to its magic number of protons, it has two main allotropes: at room temperature, the stable allotrope is β-tin, a silvery-white, malleable metal, but at low temperatures it transforms into the less dense grey α-tin, which has the diamond cubic structure. Metallic tin does not oxidize in air; the first tin alloy used on a large scale was bronze, made of 1/8 tin and 7/8 copper, from as early as 3000 BC. After 600 BC, pure metallic tin was produced. Pewter, an alloy of 85–90% tin with the remainder consisting of copper and lead, was used for flatware from the Bronze Age until the 20th century.
In modern times, tin is used in many alloys, most notably tin/lead soft solders, which are 60% or more tin, in the manufacture of transparent, electrically conducting films of indium tin oxide in optoelectronic applications. Another large application for tin is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel; because of the low toxicity of inorganic tin, tin-plated steel is used for food packaging as tin cans. However, some organotin compounds can be as toxic as cyanide. Tin is a soft, malleable and crystalline silvery-white metal; when a bar of tin is bent, a crackling sound known as the "tin cry" can be heard from the twinning of the crystals. Tin melts at low temperatures of about 232 °C, the lowest in group 14; the melting point is further lowered to 177.3 °C for 11 nm particles. Β-tin, stable at and above room temperature, is malleable. In contrast, α-tin, stable below 13.2 °C, is brittle. Α-tin has a diamond cubic crystal structure, similar to silicon or germanium. Α-tin has no metallic properties at all because its atoms form a covalent structure in which electrons cannot move freely.
It is a dull-gray powdery material with no common uses other than a few specialized semiconductor applications. These two allotropes, α-tin and β-tin, are more known as gray tin and white tin, respectively. Two more allotropes, γ and σ, exist at temperatures above 161 pressures above several GPa. In cold conditions, β-tin tends to transform spontaneously into α-tin, a phenomenon known as "tin pest". Although the α-β transformation temperature is nominally 13.2 °C, impurities lower the transition temperature well below 0 °C and, on the addition of antimony or bismuth, the transformation might not occur at all, increasing the durability of the tin. Commercial grades of tin resist transformation because of the inhibiting effect of the small amounts of bismuth, antimony and silver present as impurities. Alloying elements such as copper, bismuth and silver increase its hardness. Tin tends rather to form hard, brittle intermetallic phases, which are undesirable, it does not form wide solid solution ranges in other metals in general, few elements have appreciable solid solubility in tin.
Simple eutectic systems, occur with bismuth, lead and zinc. Tin was one of the first superconductors to be studied. Tin can be attacked by acids and alkalis. Tin can be polished and is used as a protective coat for other metals. A protective oxide layer prevents further oxidation, the same that forms on pewter and other tin alloys. Tin helps to accelerate the chemical reaction. Tin has ten stable isotopes, with atomic masses of 112, 114 through 120, 122 and 124, the greatest number of any element. Of these, the most abundant are 120Sn, 118Sn, 116Sn, while the least abundant is 115Sn; the isotopes with mass numbers have no nuclear spin, while those with odd have a spin of +1/2. Tin, with its three common isotopes 116Sn, 118Sn and 120Sn, is among the easiest elements to detect and analyze by NMR spectroscopy, its chemical shifts are referenced against SnMe4; this large number of stable isotopes is thought to be a direct result of the atomic number 50, a "magic number" in nuclear physics. Tin occurs in 29 unstable isotopes, encompassing all the remaining atomic masses from 99 to 137.
Apart from 126Sn, with a half-life of 230,000 years, all the radioisotopes have a half-life of less than a year. The radioactive 100Sn, discovered in 1994, 132Sn are one of the few nuclides with a "doubly magic" nucleus: despite being unstable, having lopsided proton–neutron ratios, they represent endpoints beyond which stability drops off rapidly. Another 30 metastable isomers have been characterized for isotopes between 111 and 131, the most stable being 121mSn with a half-life of 43.9 years. The relative differences in the abundances of tin's stable isotopes can be explained by their different modes of formation in stellar nucleosynthesis. 116Sn through 120Sn inclusive are formed in the s-process in most stars and hence they are the most common isotopes, while 122Sn and 124Sn are only formed in the r-process (rapid neutr
Solder
Solder is a fusible metal alloy used to create a permanent bond between metal workpieces. The word solder comes from the Middle English word soudur, via Old French solduree and soulder, from the Latin solidare, meaning "to make solid". In fact, solder must first be melted in order to adhere to and connect the pieces together after cooling, which requires that an alloy suitable for use as solder have a lower melting point than the pieces being joined; the solder should be resistant to oxidative and corrosive effects that would degrade the joint over time. Solder used in making electrical connections needs to have favorable electrical characteristics. Soft solder has a melting point range of 90 to 450 °C, is used in electronics and sheet metal work. Alloys that melt between 180 and 190 °C are the most used. Soldering performed using alloys with a melting point above 450 °C is called "hard soldering", "silver soldering", or brazing. In specific proportions, some alloys can become eutectic — that is, their melting point is the same as their freezing point, the alloy's melting point is lower than that of either component.
Non-eutectic alloys have markedly different solidus and liquidus temperatures, within that range they exist as a paste of solid particles in a melt of the lower-melting phase. In electrical work, if the joint is disturbed in the pasty state before it has solidified a poor electrical connection may result; the pasty state of a non-eutectic solder can be exploited in plumbing, as it allows molding of the solder during cooling, e.g. for ensuring watertight joint of pipes, resulting in a so-called "wiped joint". For electrical and electronics work, solder wire is available in a range of thicknesses for hand-soldering, with cores containing flux, it is available as a paste, as a preformed foil shaped to match the workpiece, more suitable for mechanized mass-production, or in small "tabs" that can be wrapped around the joint and melted with a flame, for field repairs where an iron isn't usable or available. Alloys of lead and tin were used in the past and are still available. Lead-free solders have been increasing in use due to regulatory requirements plus the health and environmental benefits of avoiding lead-based electronic components.
They are exclusively used today in consumer electronics. Plumbers use bars of solder, much thicker than the wire used for electrical applications. Jewelers use solder in thin sheets, which they cut into snippets. On July 1, 2006 the European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive came into effect, restricting the inclusion of lead in most consumer electronics sold in the EU, having a broad effect on consumer electronics sold worldwide. In the US, manufacturers may receive tax benefits by reducing the use of lead-based solder. Lead-free solders in commercial use may contain tin, silver, indium, zinc and traces of other metals. Most lead-free replacements for conventional 60/40 and 63/37 Sn-Pb solder have melting points from 5 to 20 °C higher, though there are solders with much lower melting points, it may be desirable to use minor modification of the solder pots used in wave-soldering, to reduce maintenance cost due to increased tin-scavenging of high-tin solder.
Lead-free solder may be less desirable for critical applications, such as aerospace and medical projects, because its properties are less known. Tin-silver-copper solders are used by two-thirds of Japanese manufacturers for reflow and wave soldering, by about 75% of companies for hand soldering; the widespread use of this popular lead-free solder alloy family is based on the reduced melting point of the Sn-Ag-Cu ternary eutectic behavior, below the 22/78 Sn-Ag eutectic of 221 °C and the 59/41 Sn-Cu eutectic of 227 °C. The ternary eutectic behavior of Sn-Ag-Cu and its application for electronics assembly was discovered by a team of researchers from Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, from Sandia National Laboratories-Albuquerque. Much recent research has focused on selection of 4th element additions to Sn-Ag-Cu to provide compatibility for the reduced cooling rate of solder sphere reflow for assembly of ball grid arrays, e.g. 18/64/14/4 tin-silver-copper-zinc and 18/64/16/2 tin-silver-copper-manganese.
Tin-based solders dissolve gold, forming brittle intermetallics. Indium-rich solders are more suitable for soldering thicker gold layer as the dissolution rate of gold in indium is much slower. Tin-rich solders readily dissolve silver. If the soldering time is long enough to form the intermetallics, the tin surface of a joint soldered to gold is dull. Tin-lead solders called soft solders, are commercially available with tin concentrations between 5% and 70% by weight; the greater the tin concentration, the greater the solder’s tensile and shear strengths. Lead has been believed to mitigate the formation of tin whiskers, though the precise mechanism for this is unknown. Today
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, an electron tube, or valve or, colloquially, a tube, is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as a thermionic tube or thermionic valve uses the phenomenon of thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode and is used for a number of fundamental electronic functions such as signal amplification and current rectification. Non-thermionic types, such as a vacuum phototube however, achieve electron emission through the photoelectric effect, are used for such as the detection of light levels. In both types, the electrons are accelerated from the cathode to the anode by the electric field in the tube; the simplest vacuum tube, the diode invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming, contains only a heated electron-emitting cathode and an anode. Current can only flow in one direction through the device—from the cathode to the anode. Adding one or more control grids within the tube allows the current between the cathode and anode to be controlled by the voltage on the grid or grids.
These devices became a key component of electronic circuits for the first half of the twentieth century. They were crucial to the development of radio, radar, sound recording and reproduction, long distance telephone networks, analogue and early digital computers. Although some applications had used earlier technologies such as the spark gap transmitter for radio or mechanical computers for computing, it was the invention of the thermionic vacuum tube that made these technologies widespread and practical, created the discipline of electronics. In the 1940s the invention of semiconductor devices made it possible to produce solid-state devices, which are smaller, more efficient and durable, cheaper than thermionic tubes. From the mid-1960s, thermionic tubes were being replaced with the transistor. However, the cathode-ray tube remained the basis for television monitors and oscilloscopes until the early 21st century. Thermionic tubes still have some applications, such as the magnetron used in microwave ovens, certain high-frequency amplifiers, amplifiers that audio enthusiasts prefer for their tube sound.
Not all electronic circuit valves/electron tubes are vacuum tubes. Gas-filled tubes are similar devices, but containing a gas at low pressure, which exploit phenomena related to electric discharge in gases without a heater. One classification of thermionic vacuum tubes is by the number of active electrodes. A device with two active elements is a diode used for rectification. Devices with three elements are triodes used for switching. Additional electrodes create tetrodes, so forth, which have multiple additional functions made possible by the additional controllable electrodes. Other classifications are: by frequency range by power rating by cathode/filament type and Warm-up time by characteristic curves design by application specialized parameters specialized functions tubes used to display information Tubes have different functions, such as cathode ray tubes which create a beam of electrons for display purposes in addition to more specialized functions such as electron microscopy and electron beam lithography.
X-ray tubes are vacuum tubes. Phototubes and photomultipliers rely on electron flow through a vacuum, though in those cases electron emission from the cathode depends on energy from photons rather than thermionic emission. Since these sorts of "vacuum tubes" have functions other than electronic amplification and rectification they are described in their own articles. A vacuum tube consists of two or more electrodes in a vacuum inside an airtight envelope. Most tubes have glass envelopes with a glass-to-metal seal based on kovar sealable borosilicate glasses, though ceramic and metal envelopes have been used; the electrodes are attached to leads. Most vacuum tubes have a limited lifetime, due to the filament or heater burning out or other failure modes, so they are made as replaceable units. Tubes were a frequent cause of failure in electronic equipment, consumers were expected to be able to replace tubes themselves. In addition to the base terminals, some tubes had an electrode terminating at a top cap.
The principal reason for doing this was to avoid leakage resistance through the tube base for the high impedance grid input. The bases were made with phenolic insulation which performs poorly as an insulator in humid conditions. Other reasons for using a top cap include improving stability by reducing grid-to-anode capacitance, improved high-frequency performance, keeping a high plate voltage away from lower voltages, accommodating one more electrode than allowed by the base. There was an occasional design that had two top cap connections; the earliest vacuum tubes evolved from incandescent light bulbs, containing a filament sealed in an evacuated glass envelope. When hot, the filament releases electrons into the vacuum, a process called thermio
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most is used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant. As a nuclear technology, nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Generating electricity from fusion power remains at the focus of international research; this article deals with nuclear fission power for electricity generation. Civilian nuclear power supplied 2,488 terawatt hours of electricity in 2017, equivalent to about 10% of global electricity generation; as of April 2018, there are 449 civilian fission reactors in the world, with a combined electrical capacity of 394 gigawatt. As of 2018, there are 58 power reactors under construction and 154 reactors planned, with a combined capacity of 63 GW and 157 GW, respectively.
As of January 2019, 337 more reactors were proposed. Most reactors under construction are generation III reactors in Asia. Nuclear power is classified as a low greenhouse gas energy supply technology, along with renewable energy, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Since its commercialization in the 1970s, nuclear power has prevented about 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and the emission of about 64 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent that would have otherwise resulted from the burning of fossil fuels. There is a debate about nuclear power. Proponents, such as the World Nuclear Association and Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, contend that nuclear power is a safe, sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions. Opponents, such as Greenpeace and NIRS, contend that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment. Accidents in nuclear power plants include the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, the more contained Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.
There have been some nuclear submarine accidents. Nuclear reactors have caused the lowest number of fatalities per unit of energy generated when compared to fossil fuels and hydropower. Coal, natural gas and hydroelectricity each have caused a greater number of fatalities per unit of energy, due to air pollution and accidents. Collaboration on research and development towards greater efficiency and recycling of spent fuel in future generation IV reactors presently includes Euratom and the co-operation of more than 10 permanent member countries globally. In 1932 physicist Ernest Rutherford discovered that when lithium atoms were "split" by protons from a proton accelerator, immense amounts of energy were released in accordance with the principle of mass–energy equivalence. However, he and other nuclear physics pioneers Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein believed harnessing the power of the atom for practical purposes anytime in the near future was unlikely; the same year, his doctoral student James Chadwick discovered the neutron, recognized as a potential tool for nuclear experimentation because of its lack of an electric charge.
Experiments bombarding materials with neutrons led Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie to discover induced radioactivity in 1934, which allowed the creation of radium-like elements. Further work by Enrico Fermi in the 1930s focused on using slow neutrons to increase the effectiveness of induced radioactivity. Experiments bombarding uranium with neutrons led Fermi to believe he had created a new, transuranic element, dubbed hesperium. In 1938, German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, along with Austrian physicist Lise Meitner and Meitner's nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, conducted experiments with the products of neutron-bombarded uranium, as a means of further investigating Fermi's claims, they determined that the tiny neutron split the nucleus of the massive uranium atoms into two equal pieces, contradicting Fermi. This was an surprising result: all other forms of nuclear decay involved only small changes to the mass of the nucleus, whereas this process—dubbed "fission" as a reference to biology—involved a complete rupture of the nucleus.
Numerous scientists, including Leó Szilárd, one of the first, recognized that if fission reactions released additional neutrons, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction could result. Once this was experimentally confirmed and announced by Frédéric Joliot-Curie in 1939, scientists in many countries petitioned their governments for support of nuclear fission research, just on the cusp of World War II, for the development of a nuclear weapon. In the United States, where Fermi and Szilárd had both emigrated, the discovery of the nuclear chain reaction led to the creation of the first man-made reactor, the research reactor known as Chicago Pile-1, which achieved self-sustaining power/criticality on December 2, 1942; the reactor's development was part of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to create atomic bombs during World War II. It led to the building of larger single-purpose production reactors, such as the X-10 Pile, for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for use in the first nuclear weapons.
The United States tested the first nuclear weapon in July 1945, the Trinity test, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki taking place one month later. In August 1945, the first distributed account of nuclear energy, in the form of the pocketbook The Atomic Age, discussed the peaceful future uses of nuclear energy and depicted a future where fo
Relay
A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to mechanically operate a switch, but other operating principles are used, such as solid-state relays. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a separate low-power signal, or where several circuits must be controlled by one signal; the first relays were used in long distance telegraph circuits as amplifiers: they repeated the signal coming in from one circuit and re-transmitted it on another circuit. Relays were used extensively in telephone exchanges and early computers to perform logical operations. A type of relay that can handle the high power required to directly control an electric motor or other loads is called a contactor. Solid-state relays control power circuits with no moving parts, instead using a semiconductor device to perform switching. Relays with calibrated operating characteristics and sometimes multiple operating coils are used to protect electrical circuits from overload or faults.
Magnetic latching relays require one pulse of coil power to move their contacts in one direction, another, redirected pulse to move them back. Repeated pulses from the same input have no effect. Magnetic latching relays are useful in applications where interrupted power should not affect the circuits that the relay is controlling. Magnetic latching relays can have either dual coils. On a single coil device, the relay will operate in one direction when power is applied with one polarity, will reset when the polarity is reversed. On a dual coil device, when polarized voltage is applied to the reset coil the contacts will transition. AC controlled magnetic latch relays have single coils that employ steering diodes to differentiate between operate and reset commands, it was used in long distance telegraph circuits, repeating the signal coming in from one circuit and re-transmitting it to another. In 1809 Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring designed an electrolytic relay as part of his electrochemical telegraph.
American scientist Joseph Henry is claimed to have invented a relay in 1835 in order to improve his version of the electrical telegraph, developed earlier in 1831. It is claimed that English inventor Edward Davy "certainly invented the electric relay" in his electric telegraph c.1835. A simple device, now called a relay, was included in the original 1840 telegraph patent of Samuel Morse; the mechanism described acted as a digital amplifier, repeating the telegraph signal, thus allowing signals to be propagated as far as desired. The word relay appears in the context of electromagnetic operations from 1860. A simple electromagnetic relay consists of a coil of wire wrapped around a soft iron core, an iron yoke which provides a low reluctance path for magnetic flux, a movable iron armature, one or more sets of contacts; the armature is mechanically linked to one or more sets of moving contacts. The armature is held in place by a spring so that when the relay is de-energized there is an air gap in the magnetic circuit.
In this condition, one of the two sets of contacts in the relay pictured is closed, the other set is open. Other relays may have fewer sets of contacts depending on their function; the relay in the picture has a wire connecting the armature to the yoke. This ensures continuity of the circuit between the moving contacts on the armature, the circuit track on the printed circuit board via the yoke, soldered to the PCB; when an electric current is passed through the coil it generates a magnetic field that activates the armature, the consequent movement of the movable contact either makes or breaks a connection with a fixed contact. If the set of contacts was closed when the relay was de-energized the movement opens the contacts and breaks the connection, vice versa if the contacts were open; when the current to the coil is switched off, the armature is returned by a force half as strong as the magnetic force, to its relaxed position. This force is provided by a spring, but gravity is used in industrial motor starters.
Most relays are manufactured to operate quickly. In a low-voltage application this reduces noise; when the coil is energized with direct current, a diode is placed across the coil to dissipate the energy from the collapsing magnetic field at deactivation, which would otherwise generate a voltage spike dangerous to semiconductor circuit components. Such diodes were not used before the application of transistors as relay drivers, but soon became ubiquitous as early germanium transistors were destroyed by this surge; some automotive relays include a diode inside the relay case. If the relay is driving a large, or a reactive load, there may be a similar problem of surge currents around the relay output contacts. In this case a snubber circuit across the contacts may absorb the surge. Suitably rated capacitors and the associated resistor are sold as a single packaged component for this commonplace use. If the coil is designed to be energized with alternating current, some method is used to split the flux into two out-of-phase components which add together, increasing the minimum pull on the armature during the AC cycle.
This is done with a small copper "shading ring" crimped around a portion of the core that creates the delayed, out-of-phase component, which holds the contacts during the zero crossings of the control voltage. Contact materials for relays vary by application. Mate
Electroplating
Electroplating is a process that uses an electric current to reduce dissolved metal cations so that they form a thin coherent metal coating on an electrode. The term is used for electrical oxidation of anions on to a solid substrate, as in the formation of silver chloride on silver wire to make silver/silver-chloride electrodes. Electroplating is used to change the surface properties of an object, but may be used to build up thickness on undersized parts or to form objects by electroforming; the process used in electroplating is called electrodeposition. It is analogous to a concentration cell acting in reverse; the part to be plated is the cathode of the circuit. In one technique, the anode is made of the metal to be plated on the part. Both components are immersed in a solution called an electrolyte containing one or more dissolved metal salts as well as other ions that permit the flow of electricity. A power supply supplies a direct current to the anode, oxidizing the metal atoms that it comprises and allowing them to dissolve in the solution.
At the cathode, the dissolved metal ions in the electrolyte solution are reduced at the interface between the solution and the cathode, such that they "plate out" onto the cathode. The rate at which the anode is dissolved is equal to the rate at which the cathode is plated and thus the ions in the electrolyte bath are continuously replenished by the anode. Other electroplating processes may use a non-consumable anode such as carbon. In these techniques, ions of the metal to be plated must be periodically replenished in the bath as they are drawn out of the solution; the most common form of electroplating is used for creating coins, such as US pennies, which are made of zinc covered in a layer of copper. The cations associate with the anions in the solution; this cations are reduced at the cathode to deposit in zero valence state. For example, for copper plating, in an acid solution, copper is oxidized at the anode to Cu2+ by losing two electrons; the Cu2+ associates with the anion SO2−4 in the solution to form copper sulfate.
At the cathode, the Cu2+ is reduced to metallic copper by gaining two electrons. The result is the effective transfer of copper from the anode source to a plate covering the cathode; the plating is most a single metallic element, not an alloy. However, some alloys can be electrodeposited, notably solder. Plated "alloys" are not true alloys, i.e. solid solutions, but rather discrete tiny crystals of the metals being plated. In the case of plated solder, it is sometimes deemed necessary to have a "true alloy", the plated solder is melted to allow the Tin and Lead to combine to form a true alloy; the true alloy is more corrosion resistant than the as-plated alloy. Many plating baths include cyanides of other metals in addition to cyanides of the metal to be deposited; these free cyanides facilitate anode corrosion, help to maintain a constant metal ion level and contribute to conductivity. Additionally, non-metal chemicals such as carbonates and phosphates may be added to increase conductivity; when plating is not desired on certain areas of the substrate, stop-offs are applied to prevent the bath from coming in contact with the substrate.
Typical stop-offs include tape, foil and waxes. The ability of a plating to cover uniformly is called throwing power. A special plating deposit called a strike or flash may be used to form a thin plating with high quality and good adherence to the substrate; this serves as a foundation for subsequent plating processes. A strike uses a bath with a low ion concentration; the process is slow, so more efficient plating processes are used once the desired strike thickness is obtained. The striking method is used in combination with the plating of different metals. If it is desirable to plate one type of deposit onto a metal to improve corrosion resistance but this metal has inherently poor adhesion to the substrate, a strike can be first deposited, compatible with both. One example of this situation is the poor adhesion of electrolytic nickel on zinc alloys, in which case a copper strike is used, which has good adherence to both. Electrochemical deposition is used for the growth of metals and conducting metal oxides because of the following advantages: the thickness and morphology of the nanostructure can be controlled by adjusting the electrochemical parameters.
A simple modification in electroplating is pulse electroplating. This process involves the swift alternating of the potential or current between two different values resulting in a series of pulses of equal amplitude and polarity, separated by zero current. By changing the pulse amplitude and width, it is possible to change the deposited film's composition and thickness; the experimental parameters of pulse electroplating consist of peak current/potential, duty cycle and effective current/potential. Peak current/potential is the maximum setting of electroplating potential. Duty cycle is the effective portion of time in certain electroplating period with the current or potential applied; the effective current/potential is calculated by multiplying the duty cycle and peak value of current or potential. Pulse electroplating could help to improve the quality of electroplated film and release the in
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds, like mercury, it has a lower melting point than the transition metals in groups 3 through 11. Cadmium and its congeners in group 12 are not considered transition metals, in that they do not have filled d or f electron shells in the elemental or common oxidation states; the average concentration of cadmium in Earth's crust is between 0.5 parts per million. It was discovered in 1817 by Stromeyer and Hermann, both in Germany, as an impurity in zinc carbonate. Cadmium is a byproduct of zinc production. Cadmium was used for a long time as a corrosion-resistant plating on steel, cadmium compounds are used as red and yellow pigments, to color glass, to stabilize plastic. Cadmium use is decreasing because it is toxic and nickel-cadmium batteries have been replaced with nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries.
One of its few new uses is cadmium telluride solar panels. Although cadmium has no known biological function in higher organisms, a cadmium-dependent carbonic anhydrase has been found in marine diatoms. Cadmium is a soft, ductile, bluish-white divalent metal, it forms complex compounds. Unlike most other metals, cadmium is resistant to corrosion and is used as a protective plate on other metals; as a bulk metal, cadmium is not flammable. Although cadmium has an oxidation state of +2, it exists in the +1 state. Cadmium and its congeners are not always considered transition metals, in that they do not have filled d or f electron shells in the elemental or common oxidation states. Cadmium burns in air to form brown amorphous cadmium oxide. Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid dissolve cadmium by forming cadmium chloride, cadmium sulfate, or cadmium nitrate; the oxidation state +1 can be produced by dissolving cadmium in a mixture of cadmium chloride and aluminium chloride, forming the Cd22+ cation, similar to the Hg22+ cation in mercury chloride.
Cd + CdCl2 + 2 AlCl3 → Cd22The structures of many cadmium complexes with nucleobases, amino acids, vitamins have been determined. Occurring cadmium is composed of 8 isotopes. Two of them are radioactive, three are expected to decay but have not done so under laboratory conditions; the two natural radioactive isotopes are 116Cd. The other three are 106Cd, 108Cd, 114Cd. At least three isotopes – 110Cd, 111Cd, 112Cd – are stable. Among the isotopes that do not occur the most long-lived are 109Cd with a half-life of 462.6 days, 115Cd with a half-life of 53.46 hours. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than 2.5 hours, the majority have half-lives of less than 5 minutes. Cadmium has 8 known meta states, with the most stable being 113mCd, 115mCd, 117mCd; the known isotopes of cadmium range in atomic mass from 94.950 u to 131.946 u. For isotopes lighter than 112 u, the primary decay mode is electron capture and the dominant decay product is element 47. Heavier isotopes decay through beta emission producing element 49.
One isotope of cadmium, 113Cd, absorbs neutrons with high selectivity: With high probability, neutrons with energy below the cadmium cut-off will be absorbed. The cadmium cut-off is about 0.5 eV, neutrons below that level are deemed slow neutrons, distinct from intermediate and fast neutrons. Cadmium is created via the s-process in low- to medium-mass stars with masses of 0.6 to 10 solar masses, over thousands of years. In that process, a silver atom captures a neutron and undergoes beta decay. Cadmium was discovered in 1817 by Friedrich Stromeyer and Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann, both in Germany, as an impurity in zinc carbonate. Stromeyer found the new element as an impurity in zinc carbonate, for 100 years, Germany remained the only important producer of the metal; the metal was named after the Latin word for calamine. Stromeyer noted that some impure samples of calamine changed color when heated but pure calamine did not, he was persistent in studying these results and isolated cadmium metal by roasting and reducing the sulfide.
The potential for cadmium yellow as pigment was recognized in the 1840s, but the lack of cadmium limited this application. Though cadmium and its compounds are toxic in certain forms and concentrations, the British Pharmaceutical Codex from 1907 states that cadmium iodide was used as a medication to treat "enlarged joints, scrofulous glands, chilblains". In 1907, the International Astronomical Union defined the international ångström in terms of a red cadmium spectral line. This
