Iridium

77 192.2

Iridium

Our Products Product Characteristics Application Areas Historical Background

IRIDIUM IA-0,1,2
Producer	Principal applications	Product Form	Packaging
Krastsvetmet	Automobile spark plugs manufacturing industry Electronics industry Electrical industry Chemical industry	Powder	Description: Plastic containers KT-2 Packing size: 301×241×130 mm

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, %
Element	State starndard for 12338-81 for IA-0	State starndard for 12338-81 for IA-1	State starndard for 12338-81 for IA-2
Ir min	99.98	99.95	99.90
Trace elements max (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, Os)	0.010	0.020	0.045
Au	0.002	0.002	0.002
Pb	0.004	0.005	0.010
Fe	0.005	0.010	0.010
Si	0.002	0.002	0.005
Ba	0.002	0.002	0.005
Mg	0.001	0.001	0.003
Al	0.004	0.005	0.005
Ag	0.002	0.002	0.005
Ni	0.001	0.002	0.005
Cu	0.003	0.005	0.01
Sn	0.002	0.002	0.002
Ti	0.002	0.005	0.01
Loss on ignition	0.01	0.01	0.01

Physical and chemical characteristics
Latin name	Iridium (Ir)
Group in Mendeleev’s periodic table	VIII
Atomic number	77
Atomic weight	192.22, a platinum group metal
Density	22.65 g/cm³
Melting point	t 2,447 °С

Jewellery
In the jewellery industry, iridium is alloyed with platinum to add to the items’ elegance, durability and wear resistance properties. The metal is also used for finishing and inlaying. Pure iridium jewellery is rare but available, while lovers of exotic items prefer those made of osmiridium (natural alloy of osmium and iridium with a higher proportion of osmium).

Electronics
Thermocouples with electrodes made of iridium alloyed with ruthenium or rhodium are employed in R&D to measure high temperatures (2,000–2,300 °C). Iridium-plated tungsten or molybdenum wire is used in the production of control grids for vacuum tubes.

Medicine
Platinum-iridium alloys serve to produce pacemakers. Angina patients have electrode leads with platinum-iridium fixation mechanisms implanted in their hearts. These leads are connected to the receiver inside a patient’s body. The generator is not implanted, with its coil antenna taped to the body opposite the receiver. When an angina attack begins, the patient activates the generator. Impulses are delivered to the antenna to be transmitted further on to the receiver, then to the platinum-iridium electrodes, and finally to the nerves, making the heart beat faster. As a source of gamma rays, iridium helps doctors fight neoplasms.

Metallurgy
In the blast-furnace process, the level of solid materials in units is monitored by means of small containers with an artificial radioactive isotope — iridium-192. It is also used to examine the quality of welds by producing radiographs that show lack of fusion and slag inclusions. Gamma-ray flaw detectors utilising iridium-192 help control the quality of steel and aluminium alloy products.

Chemical industry
Iridium is used to make heat-resistant laboratory crucibles capable of withstanding high temperatures and corrosive environments and utilised for growing gemstone and laser material oxide single crystals. Iridium-nickel catalysts are sometimes employed to produce propylene from acetylene and methane.

Machinery and equipment
Iridium is needed for the construction of machinery operating under extreme conditions, such as jet engines, nuclear power units for space robots, and deepwater pipelines. The metal is used to produce refractory glass blow nozzles, mirror coatings for X-ray telescopes, bushings for rayon manufacturing, and sea compasses, including compass needles.

Spark plugs
The automotive industry is a major iridium consumer, using it for manufacturing iridium-platinum-copper spark plug electrodes for internal combustion engines. Iridium adds to spark plugs’ durability and reduces the voltage required to fire them.

Iridium is a platinum group metal. In 1804, the British chemist, Smithson Tennant, examined a black powder which was left after dissolving virgin platinum in aqua regia, and found that it contained two new elements. The salts of one of these new elements were coloured, quite literally, with all the colours of the rainbow. Tennant did not think too long about what to call his discovery, choosing the name “iridium”, from the Greek “iris”, or “rainbow”.

The world is not rich in this metal, with reserves in the ground not exceeding millionths of a per cent of the earth’s geological make-up. Each year, not more than a single ton of this metal is produced world-wide.

Safety Data sheet

Safety Data sheet PDF, 0.1 MB

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