Cerium metal

Cerium metal foil is a kind of thin sheet made of cerium metal, silver grey, soft, chemically active, easy to oxidise, with good ductility and a certain degree of thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity, and has a wide range of applications in electronics, metallurgy, chemical industry and many other fields.

Characteristic

Appearance: Cerium metal foil usually shows a silver-grey metallic luster and has a certain metallic texture.

Texture: Cerium metal foil is soft and spreadable, and is relatively easy to process and shape, e.g. into foils.

Density: The density is about 6.770 g/cm³, which gives it a certain weight for its volume, but is relatively low compared to some common heavy metals.

Melting and boiling point: melting point is 795℃, boiling point is 3443℃, it has a high melting and boiling point, and can still maintain good stability under high temperature environment.

Livability: Cerium metal foil is chemically active and oxidises easily in the air and loses its lustre, forming a film of oxide on its surface. When in contact with water, it will react, and the reaction speed is accelerated in hot water.

Reduction: It has strong reducing property and can react with many oxidising agents. For example, in steel smelting, it can be used as a desulphurising agent, reacting with sulphur to form volatile sulphides, thus removing sulphur from steel.

Applications

Magnetic memory devices: Cerium and other rare earth metals and elements such as iron, cobalt, boron and other alloys can be used to make strong magnetic materials, applied in magnetic memory devices, such as hard discs, magnetic tapes, etc., which are able to achieve the storage and reading of information.

Electrodes for electronic components: due to its good electrical conductivity, it can be used as electrode materials for some electronic components, such as in some special capacitors, batteries and other devices.

Glass additive: in glass manufacturing, as an additive can absorb ultraviolet and infrared rays. Applied to automotive glass, architectural glass, etc., it can not only play the role of UV protection, but also reduce indoor temperature and energy consumption.

Polishing material: cerium oxide can be used for polishing optical glass, which can make the glass surface smoother and more transparent and improve the optical performance. It has important applications in the manufacture of high-precision optical instruments, lenses and so on.

Hydrogen storage materials: cerium can react with hydrogen to achieve the storage and release of hydrogen, which has potential application value in the future use of hydrogen energy, and can be used in the preparation of hydrogen storage materials.

Fuel cell: part of the fuel cell technology, cerium can be used as a catalyst or a component of the catalyst to promote the reaction of the fuel cell and improve the energy conversion efficiency.

Iron and steel smelting: as mentioned earlier, it can be used for desulphurisation and alloying of steel. It reacts with sulphur at high temperatures to remove sulphur from steel and improve the quality of steel; as an alloying additive it can improve the chemical composition and properties of steel, and increase the strength, heat resistance, weldability and workability of steel.

Non-ferrous metal alloys: In the preparation of some non-ferrous metal alloys, the addition of cerium can improve the performance of the alloy, such as improving the strength, toughness and corrosion resistance of the alloy.

Lighter flints: alloys made of cerium, lanthanum and iron (e.g. flints) can be used as lighters or camping flints, which are capable of generating sparks when rubbed together, facilitating ignition.

Anti-corrosion agent: it can be used as an anti-corrosion agent for metal surfaces, especially for the corrosion of metals such as iron, aluminium and nickel has a significant inhibition effect, it can form a layer of protective oxidative film on the surface of the metal to reduce the rate of oxidation of the metal.