Product Code Database
Beryllium is a chemical element; it has symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, hard, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form minerals. Gemstones high in beryllium include beryl (aquamarine, emerald, red beryl) and chrysoberyl. It is a relatively rare element in the universe, usually occurring as a product of the spallation of larger atomic nuclei that have collided with . Within the cores of stars, beryllium is depleted as it is fused into heavier elements. Beryllium constitutes about 0.0004 percent by mass of Earth's crust. The world's annual beryllium production of 220 tons is usually manufactured by extraction from the mineral beryl, a difficult process because beryllium bonds strongly to oxygen.
In structural applications, the combination of high flexural rigidity, Thermostability, thermal conductivity and low density (1.85 times that of water) make beryllium a desirable aerospace material for aircraft components, , spacecraft, and satellites. Because of its low density and atomic mass, beryllium is relatively transparent to and other forms of ionizing radiation; therefore, it is the most common window material for X-ray equipment and components of particle detectors. When added as an element to aluminium, copper (notably the alloy beryllium copper), iron, or nickel, beryllium improves many physical properties. For example, tools and components made of beryllium copper are strong and Hardness and do not create sparks when they strike a steel surface. In air, the surface of beryllium oxidizes readily at room temperature to form a passivation layer 1–10 nm thick that protects it from further oxidation and corrosion. The metal oxidizes in bulk (beyond the passivation layer) when heated above , and burns brilliantly when heated to about .
The commercial use of beryllium requires the use of appropriate dust control equipment and industrial controls at all times because of the toxicity of inhaled beryllium-containing dusts that can cause a chronic life-threatening allergic disease, berylliosis, in some people. Berylliosis is typically manifested by chronic pulmonary fibrosis and, in severe cases, right sided heart failure and death.
The single primordial beryllium isotope 9Be also undergoes a (n,2n) neutron reaction with neutron energies over about 1.9 MeV, to produce 8Be, which almost immediately breaks into two alpha particles. Thus, for high-energy neutrons, beryllium is a neutron multiplier, releasing more neutrons than it absorbs. This nuclear reaction is:
Neutrons are liberated when beryllium Atomic nucleus are struck by energetic producing the nuclear reaction
Small amounts of tritium are liberated when nuclei absorb low energy neutrons in the three-step nuclear reaction
has a half-life of only 0.8 seconds, β− is an electron, and has a high neutron absorption cross section. Tritium is a radioisotope of concern in nuclear reactor waste streams.
About one billionth () of the primordial atoms created in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis were 7Be. This is a consequence of the low density of matter when the temperature of the universe cooled enough for small nuclei to be stable. Creating such nuclei requires nuclear collisions that are rare at low density. Although 7Be is unstable and decays by electron capture into 7Li with a half-life of 53 days, in the early universe this decay channel was unavailable due to atoms being fully ionized. The conversion of 7Be to Li was only complete near the time of recombination.
The isotope 7Be (half-life 53 days) is also a cosmogenic nuclide, and also shows an atmospheric abundance inversely proportional to solar activity. The 2s electrons of beryllium may contribute to chemical bonding. Therefore, when 7Be decays by L-electron capture, it does so by taking electrons from its that may be participating in bonding. This makes its decay rate dependent to a measurable degree upon its chemical surroundings – a rare occurrence in nuclear decay.
8Be is unstable but has a ground state resonance with an important role in the triple-alpha process in helium-fueled stars. As first proposed by British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle based solely on astrophysical analysis, the energy levels of 8Be and 12C allow carbon nucleosynthesis by increasing the contact time for two of the three alpha particles in the carbon production process. The main carbon-producing reaction in the universe is where 4He is an alpha particle.
Radioactive cosmogenic 10Be is produced in the atmosphere of the Earth by the cosmic ray spallation of oxygen. Then the 10Be accumulates at the soil surface, where its relatively long half-life (1.36 million years) permits a long residence time before decaying to boron-10. Thus, 10Be and its daughter products are used to examine natural soil erosion, soil formation and the development of laterite, and as a proxy for measurement of the variations in solar variation and the age of . The production of 10Be is inversely related to solar activity, because increased solar wind during periods of high solar activity decreases the flux of galactic cosmic rays that reach the Earth. Nuclear explosions also form 10Be by the reaction of fast neutrons with 13C in the carbon dioxide in air. This is one of the indicators of past activity at nuclear weapon test sites.
The exotic isotopes 11Be and 14Be are known to exhibit a Halo nucleus. This feature can be understood as the nuclei of 11Be and 14Be have, respectively, 1 and 4 neutrons orbiting substantially outside the expected nuclear radius.
The two main ores of beryllium, beryl and bertrandite, are found in Argentina, Brazil, India, Madagascar, Russia and the United States. Total world reserves of beryllium ore are greater than 400,000 tonnes.
The Sun has a concentration of 0.1 parts per billion (ppb) of beryllium. Beryllium has a concentration of 2 to 6 parts per million (ppm) in the Earth's crust and is the 47th most abundant element. (2025). 9780911910001, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc.. ISBN 9780911910001 It is most concentrated (6 ppm) in the soils. Trace amounts of 9Be are found in the Earth's atmosphere. The concentration of beryllium in sea water is 0.2–0.6 parts per trillion. In stream water, however, beryllium is more abundant, with a concentration of 0.1 ppb.
Production of beryllium in Russia was halted in 1997, and is planned to be resumed in the 2020s. Уральский производитель изумрудов планирует выпускать стратегический металл бериллий . TASS.ru (15 May 2019)
Beryllium is most commonly extracted from the mineral beryl, which is either sintering using an extraction agent or melted into a soluble mixture. The sintering process involves mixing beryl with sodium fluorosilicate and soda at to form sodium fluoroberyllate, aluminium oxide and silicon dioxide. Beryllium hydroxide is precipitated from a solution of sodium fluoroberyllate and sodium hydroxide in water. The extraction of beryllium using the melt method involves grinding beryl into a powder and heating it to . The melt is quickly cooled with water and then reheated in concentrated sulfuric acid, mostly yielding beryllium sulfate and aluminium sulfate. Aqueous ammonia is then used to remove the aluminium and sulfur, leaving beryllium hydroxide.
Beryllium hydroxide created using either the sinter or melt method is then converted into beryllium fluoride or beryllium chloride. To form the fluoride, aqueous ammonium hydrogen fluoride is added to beryllium hydroxide to yield a precipitate of ammonium tetrafluoroberyllate, which is heated to to form beryllium fluoride. Heating the fluoride to with magnesium forms finely divided beryllium, and additional heating to creates the compact metal. Heating beryllium hydroxide forms beryllium oxide, which becomes beryllium chloride when combined with carbon and chlorine. Electrolysis of molten beryllium chloride is then used to obtain the metal.
At room temperature, the surface of beryllium forms a 1−10 nm-thick oxide passivation layer that prevents further reactions with air, except for gradual thickening of the oxide up to about 25 nm. When heated above about 500 °C, oxidation into the bulk metal progresses along grain boundaries. Once the metal is ignited in air by heating above the oxide melting point around 2500 °C, beryllium burns brilliantly, forming a mixture of beryllium oxide and beryllium nitride. Beryllium dissolves readily in non-, such as HCl and diluted , but not in nitric acid or water as this forms the oxide. This behavior is similar to that of aluminium. Beryllium also dissolves and reacts with alkali solutions.
Binary compounds of beryllium(II) are polymeric in the solid state. has a silica-like structure with corner-shared tetrahedra. and have chain structures with edge-shared tetrahedra. Beryllium oxide, BeO, is a white refractory solid which has a zinc sulfide crystal structure and a thermal conductivity as high as some metals. BeO is amphoteric. Beryllium sulfide, selenide and telluride are known, all having the zincblende structure. Beryllium nitride, , is a high-melting-point compound which is readily hydrolyzed. Beryllium azide, is known and beryllium phosphide, has a similar structure to . A number of beryllium are known, such as , , , , and . Beryllium carbide, , is a refractory brick-red compound that reacts with water to give methane. Beryllium silicide have been identified in the form of variously sized Nanocluster, formed through a spontaneous reaction between pure beryllium and silicon. The halides (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) have a linear monomeric molecular structure in the gas phase.
Lower oxidation states complexes of beryllium are exceedingly rare. For example, a stable complex with a Be-Be bond, which formally features beryllium in the +1 oxidation state, has been described. Beryllium in the 0 oxidation state is also known in a complex with a Mg-Be bond.
Beryllium(II) forms few complexes with monodentate ligands because the water molecules in the aquo-ion, are bound very strongly to the beryllium ion. Notable exceptions are the series of water-soluble complexes with the fluoride ion:
Beryllium(II) forms many complexes with bidentate ligands containing oxygen-donor atoms. The species is notable for having a 3-coordinate oxide ion at its center. Basic beryllium acetate, , has an oxide ion surrounded by a tetrahedron of beryllium atoms.
With organic ligands, such as the malonate ion, the acid deprotonates when forming the complex. The donor atoms are two oxygens.
The formation of a complex is in competition with the metal ion-hydrolysis reaction and mixed complexes with both the anion and the hydroxide ion are also formed. For example, derivatives of the cyclic trimer are known, with a bidentate ligand replacing one or more pairs of water molecules.
Aliphatic hydroxycarboxylic acids such as glycolic acid form rather weak monodentate complexes in solution, in which the hydroxyl group remains intact. In the solid state, the hydroxyl group may deprotonate: a hexamer, , was isolated long ago. Aromatic hydroxy ligands (i.e. ) form relatively strong complexes. For example, log K1 and log K2 values of 12.2 and 9.3 have been reported for complexes with tiron.
Beryllium has generally a rather poor affinity for ammine ligands. There are many early reports of complexes with amino acids, but unfortunately they are not reliable as the concomitant hydrolysis reactions were not understood at the time of publication. Values for log β of ca. 6 to 7 have been reported. The degree of formation is small because of competition with hydrolysis reactions.
Early analyses of emeralds and beryls by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Torbern Olof Bergman, Franz Karl Achard, and always yielded similar elements, leading to the mistaken conclusion that both substances are aluminium silicates. Mineralogist René Just Haüy discovered that both crystals are geometrically identical, and he asked chemist Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin for a chemical analysis.
In a 1798 paper read before the Institut de France, Vauquelin reported that he found a new "earth" by dissolving aluminium hydroxide from emerald and beryl in an additional alkali. The editors of the journal Annales de chimie et de physique named the new earth "glucine" for the sweet taste of some of its compounds.In a footnote on page 169 of (Vauquelin, 1798), the editors write: "(1) La propriété la plus caractéristique de cette terre, confirmée par les dernières expériences de notre collègue, étant de former des sels d'une saveur sucrée, nous proposons de l'appeler glucine, de γλυκυς, doux, γλυκύ, vin doux, γλυκαιτω, rendre doux ... Note des Rédacteurs." ((1) The most characteristic property of this earth, confirmed by the recent experiments of our colleague Vauquelin, being to form salts with a sweet taste, we propose to call it glucine from γλυκυς, sweet, γλυκύ, sweet wine, γλυκαιτω, to make sweet ... Note of the editors.) The name beryllium was first used by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828. Both beryllium and glucinum were used concurrently until 1949, when the IUPAC adopted beryllium as the standard name of the element.Holden, N. E. (2019). History of the origin of the chemical elements and their discoverers (No. BNL-211891-2019-COPA). Brookhaven National Lab.(BNL), Upton, NY (United States).
Friedrich Wöhler and Antoine Bussy independently isolated beryllium in 1828 by the chemical reaction of metallic potassium with beryllium chloride, as follows:
Using an alcohol lamp, Wöhler heated alternating layers of beryllium chloride and potassium in a wired-shut platinum crucible. The above reaction immediately took place and caused the crucible to become white hot. Upon cooling and washing the resulting gray-black powder, he saw that it was made of fine particles with a dark metallic luster. The highly reactive potassium had been produced by the electrolysis of its compounds. He did not succeed to melt the beryllium particles.
The direct electrolysis of a molten mixture of beryllium fluoride and sodium fluoride by Paul Lebeau in 1898 resulted in the first pure (99.5 to 99.8%) samples of beryllium. However, industrial production started only after the First World War. The original industrial involvement included subsidiaries and scientists related to the Union Carbide in Cleveland, Ohio, and Siemens & Halske AG in Berlin. In the US, the process was ruled by Hugh S. Cooper, director of The Kemet Laboratories Company. In Germany, the first commercially successful process for producing beryllium was developed in 1921 by Alfred Stock and Hans Goldschmidt.
A sample of beryllium was bombarded with from the decay of radium in a 1932 experiment by James Chadwick that uncovered the existence of the neutron. This same method is used in one class of radioisotope-based laboratory that produce 30 neutrons for every million α particles.
Beryllium production saw a rapid increase during World War II due to the rising demand for hard beryllium-copper alloys and for fluorescent lights. Most early fluorescent lamps used zinc orthosilicate with varying content of beryllium to emit greenish light. Small additions of magnesium tungstate improved the blue part of the spectrum to yield an acceptable white light. Halophosphate-based phosphors replaced beryllium-based phosphors after beryllium was found to be toxic. (2025). 9780881733785, Fairmont Press. ISBN 9780881733785
Electrolysis of a mixture of beryllium fluoride and sodium fluoride was used to isolate beryllium during the 19th century. The metal's high melting point makes this process more energy-consuming than corresponding processes used for the alkali metals. Early in the 20th century, the production of beryllium by the thermal decomposition of beryllium iodide was investigated following the success of a similar process for the production of zirconium, but this process proved to be uneconomical for volume production.
Pure beryllium metal did not become readily available until 1957, even though it had been used as an alloying metal to harden and toughen copper much earlier. Beryllium could be produced by reducing beryllium compounds such as beryllium chloride with metallic potassium or sodium. Currently, most beryllium is produced by reducing beryllium fluoride with magnesium. The price on the American market for vacuum-cast beryllium ingots was about $338 per pound ($745 per kilogram) in 2001.
Between 1998 and 2008, the world's production of beryllium had decreased from 343 to about 200 . It then increased to 230 metric tons by 2018, of which 170 tonnes came from the United States.
Although Humphry Davy failed to isolate it, he proposed the name glucium for the new metal, derived from the name glucina for the earth it was found in; altered forms of this name, glucinium or glucinum (symbol Gl) continued to be used into the 20th century.
Low atomic number also makes beryllium relatively transparent to energetic particles. Therefore, it is used to build the beamline around the collision region in particle physics setups, such as all four main detector experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (ALICE, ATLAS experiment, CMS, LHCb), the Tevatron and at SLAC. The low density of beryllium allows collision products to reach the surrounding detectors without significant interaction, its stiffness allows a powerful vacuum to be produced within the pipe to minimize interaction with gases, its thermal stability allows it to function correctly at temperatures of only a few degrees above absolute zero, and its diamagnetic nature keeps it from interfering with the complex multipole magnet systems used to steer and strong focusing the .
Mixing about 2.0% beryllium into copper forms an alloy called beryllium copper that is six times stronger than copper alone. (2025). 9780071439534, McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780071439534 Beryllium alloys are used in many applications because of their combination of elasticity, high electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, high strength and hardness, nonmagnetic properties, as well as good corrosion and fatigue resistance. These applications include non-sparking tools that are used near flammable gases (beryllium nickel), springs, membranes (beryllium nickel and beryllium iron) used in surgical instruments, and high temperature devices. As little as 50 parts per million of beryllium alloyed with liquid magnesium leads to a significant increase in oxidation resistance and decrease in flammability.
The high elastic stiffness of beryllium has led to its extensive use in precision instrumentation, e.g. in inertial guidance systems and in the support mechanisms for optical systems. Beryllium-copper alloys were also applied as a hardening agent in "Needlegun scaler", which were used to strip the paint from the hulls of ships.
In sound amplification systems, the speed at which sound travels directly affects the resonant frequency of the amplifier, thereby influencing the range of audible high-frequency sounds. Beryllium stands out due to its exceptionally high speed of sound propagation compared to other metals. This unique property allows beryllium to achieve higher resonant frequencies, making it an ideal material for use as a diaphragm in high-quality loudspeakers.
Beryllium was used for in high-performance phonograph cartridge styli, where its extreme stiffness and low density allowed for tracking weights to be reduced to 1 gram while still tracking high frequency passages with minimal distortion.
An earlier major application of beryllium was in for military because of its hardness, high melting point, and exceptional ability to heat dissipation. Environmental considerations have led to substitution by other materials.
A metal matrix composite material combining beryllium with aluminium developed under the trade name AlBeMet for the high performance aerospace industry has low weight but four times the stiffness of aluminum alone.Parsonage, T. (2000). Beryllium metal matrix composites for aerospace and commercial applications. Materials science and technology, 16(7-8), 732-738.
The James Webb Space Telescope has 18 hexagonal beryllium sections for its mirrors, each plated with a thin layer of gold. Because JWST will face a temperature of 33 K, the mirror is made of gold-plated beryllium, which is capable of handling extreme cold better than glass. Beryllium contracts and deforms less than glass and remains more uniform in such temperatures. For the same reason, the optics of the Spitzer Space Telescope are entirely built of beryllium metal.
Beryllium is commonly used in some in laboratory devices in which relatively few neutrons are needed (rather than having to use a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator-powered neutron generator). For this purpose, a target of beryllium-9 is bombarded with energetic alpha particles from a radioisotope such as polonium-210, radium-226, plutonium-238, or americium-241. In the nuclear reaction that occurs, a beryllium nucleus is transmuted into carbon-12, and one free neutron is emitted, traveling in about the same direction as the alpha particle was heading. Such alpha decay-driven beryllium neutron sources, named "urchin" neutron initiators, were used in some early . Neutron sources in which beryllium is bombarded with from a gamma decay radioisotope are also used to produce laboratory neutrons.Byrne, J. Neutrons, Nuclei, and Matter, Dover Publications, Mineola, NY, 2011, , pp. 32–33.
Beryllium is used in fuel fabrication for CANDU reactors. The fuel elements have small appendages that are resistance brazed to the fuel cladding using an induction brazing process with Be as the braze filler material. Bearing pads are brazed in place to prevent contact between the fuel bundle and the pressure tube containing it, and inter-element spacer pads are brazed on to prevent element to element contact.Harmsen, J. G., Lewis, B. J., Pant, A., & Thompson, W. T. (2010, October). Beryllium brazing considerations in CANDU fuel bundle manufacture. In Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on CANDU Fuel, Niagara Falls, ON (pp. 1-12).
Beryllium is used at the Joint European Torus nuclear fusion, and it will be used in the more advanced ITER to condition the components which face the plasma. Beryllium has been proposed as a cladding material for nuclear fuel rods, because of its good combination of mechanical, chemical, and nuclear properties. Beryllium fluoride is one of the constituent salts of the eutectic salt mixture FLiBe, which is used as a solvent, moderator and coolant in many hypothetical molten salt reactor designs, including the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR).
Some high-end phonograph cartridges used beryllium cantilevers to improve tracking by reducing mass.
Beryllium oxide is useful for many applications that require the combined properties of an electrical insulator and an excellent heat conductor, with high strength and hardness and a very high melting point. Beryllium oxide is frequently used as an insulator base plate in high-power in radio frequency for telecommunications. Beryllium oxide is being studied for use in increasing the thermal conductivity of uranium dioxide nuclear fuel pellets. Beryllium compounds were used in fluorescent lighting tubes, but this use was discontinued because of the disease berylliosis which developed in the workers who were making the tubes.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Preventing Adverse Health Effects From Exposure to Beryllium in Dental Laboratories Beryllium is used in X-ray windows because it is transparent to X-rays, allowing for clearer and more efficient imaging. In medical imaging equipment, such as CT scanners and mammography machines, beryllium's strength and light weight enhance durability and performance. Beryllium is used in analytical equipment for blood, HIV, and other diseases. Beryllium alloys are used in surgical instruments, optical mirrors, and laser systems for medical treatments.
Exposure to beryllium in the workplace can lead to a sensitized immune response, and over time development of berylliosis. NIOSH in the United States researches these effects in collaboration with a major manufacturer of beryllium products. NIOSH also conducts genetic research on sensitization and CBD, independently of this collaboration.
Acute beryllium disease in the form of chemical pneumonitis was first reported in Europe in 1933 and in the United States in 1943. A survey found that about 5% of workers in plants manufacturing in 1949 in the United States had beryllium-related lung diseases. Chronic berylliosis resembles sarcoidosis in many respects, and the differential diagnosis is often difficult. It killed some early workers in nuclear weapons design, such as Herbert L. Anderson.
Beryllium may be found in coal slag. When the slag is formulated into an abrasive agent for blasting paint and rust from hard surfaces, the beryllium can become airborne and become a source of exposure. Newport News Shipbuilding Workers Face a Hidden Toxin, Daily Press (Virginia), Michael Welles Shapiro, 31 August 2013
Although the use of beryllium compounds in fluorescent lighting tubes was discontinued in 1949, potential for exposure to beryllium exists in the nuclear and aerospace industries, in the refining of beryllium metal and the melting of beryllium-containing alloys, in the manufacturing of electronic devices, and in the handling of other beryllium-containing material.
|
|
