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You have used indium countless times without even knowing it.
It’s in the touch screens of phones and tablets, and in flatscreen TVs. It’s also helping us reduce our environmental footprint as an ingredient in solar panels.
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about … INDIUM!
FAST FACTS!
- Indium is a soft metal (in fact it is one of the softest metals on the periodic table), so it is easily bent and cut even with a knife.
- When indium is bent, it makes a crunching sound due to the repositioning of crystals inside the metal.
- Indium was isolated in 1863 by German chemists Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymous Theodor Richter. Funnily enough, indium was named after the color indigo even though Reich was color blind – he needed Richter to confirm its colour in a spectroscope and that indium was indeed a newly-discovered element.
- When it is in its pure form, indium is very sticky and tends to stick to other metals. Because of this, and its low melting point, it is often used as a solder, meaning it is used to hold other materials together.