What You Need To Know About Cobalt Rods?

Cobalt is a silver-white metal with a bluish tinge. It is brittle, hard and magnetic. Because of its brittleness, it is used as an additive and alloy in other materials to improve its characteristics and physical properties. Cobalt has a very high melting point, and it retains its magnetism even at very high temperatures. It is also very wear-resistant, making it suitable for addition to other metals, such as high speed steel, aluminium and nickel.

Physical properties of cobalt

Cobalt is a shiny steel-gray metal with a melting point of 1493℃ and a specific gravity of 8 and 9. It is relatively hard and brittle. Cobalt is ferromagnetic and similar to iron and nickel in terms of hardness, tensile strength, mechanical properties, thermodynamic properties and electrochemical behavior. The magnetism disappears when heated to 1150℃.

Chemical properties of cobalt

The combined valence of cobalt is 2 and 3. It does not interact with water at room temperature and is stable in humid air. When heated to above 300℃ in air, it oxidizes to form CoO. In white heat, it burns into Co₃O₄. The fine cobalt metal powder produced by hydrogen reduction can spontaneously ignite into cobalt oxide in air. According to the electrode potential, cobalt is a moderately active metal. Its chemical properties are similar to iron and nickel. Oxidation occurs at high temperature. When heated, cobalt reacts violently with oxygen, sulfur, chlorine and bromine to form corresponding compounds. Cobalt is soluble in dilute acids and is passivated in fuming nitric acid by forming an oxide film. Cobalt is slowly eroded by hydrofluoric acid, ammonia, and sodium hydroxide. Cobalt is an amphoteric metal.

Who discovered cobalt?

Cobalt was known to have been used in pottery glazes in early China, and its compounds were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to make tinted glass, producing dark blue. The blue color of Tang Dynasty porcelain was also due to the presence of cobalt compounds. The cobalt blue ore CoAsS, known in medieval Europe as kobalt, first appeared in the writings of Aglicola, a German mineralogist who lived in the Czech Republic in the 16th century. The word originally meant "demon" in German. This may have been because the ore was considered useless and because it contained arsenic, which was harmful to the health of workers. cobaltum, the Latin name for cobalt, and the elemental symbol Co today derive from the German word for 'devil,' a result of people's ignorance of what was new. In 1753, Swedish chemist G. Brant (G. Brant) isolated the light rose-colored gray metal from cobaltite, which is the higher purity of the metal cobalt. Brent is therefore credited with the discovery of cobalt.

In 1780, the Swedish chemist T.Bergman made pure cobalt and identified cobalt as a metal element.

It was first included in the periodic table by Lavoisier in 1789.

The application of cobalt rods

High purity cobalt rods are used to make superhard heat resistant alloys and magnetic alloys, cobalt compounds, catalysts, electric filament and porcelain glaze. Cobalt rod has good semiconductor properties, magnetic properties and conductive properties. It is an important material for the preparation of magnetic recording media, magnetic recording heads, photoelectric devices, magnetic sensors and integrated circuits.

The role of cobalt in lithium batteries

Used for lithium cobalt acid battery, nickel cobalt aluminum acid battery, ternary battery cathode material. The purpose of cobalt is to stabilize the layered structure of the material and to improve the cycle and rate performance of the material, but too much cobalt can reduce the actual capacity.

Lithium-ion batteries are an electrochemical marvel. We use it for everything, from mundane gadgets like phones and laptops to high-end applications like electric boats and helicopters on Mars. Lithium-ion batteries are so important to modern life that three chemists won the Nobel Prize last year for their work. But in the process, the battery industry also gradually formed a dependence on cobalt.

Cobalt is a rare, toxic and shiny mineral found in the negatively charged electrode (or cathode) of almost all lithium-ion batteries in use today. It is expensive, heavy and associated with unscrupulous mining practices, wild price swings and fragile global supply chains. No wonder so many battery makers want to eliminate their dependence on cobalt. But the material plays a crucial role in stabilising the battery and increasing its energy density. Although experimental cobalt-free batteries exist, until now they have had performance problems, such as limited life and slow charging.