Indium

Today we introduce you a quite interesting metal --- indium.It is in the third group of the chemical periodic table, below thegallium.Externally, indium is shiny and does not discolor in the air.Due to its softness, indium can get scratches on its face scraped by nails.

Of course, you can also cut a piece of indium with a normal utility knife.If you take a piece of indium and gallium and then rub them against each other, a liquid indium gallium alloy will begin to form at the point of contact. Its composition is 75.5% gallium and 24.5% indium.The melting point of this alloy is about 15 degrees Celsius, so this alloy maintains a liquid shape at room temperature.

This alloy can be well used to moisturize glass to form a beautiful mirror. By the way, some automotive headlight mirrors are also covered with metallic indium.If you use a cotton swab to apply this alloy, you will get a metal pen that draws a conductive line on the paper.

In order to demonstrate the most interesting properties of indium, we decide to take out an indium sheet from the bottle. The melting point of pure indium is 156.60 degrees Celsius (429.75 K), so it is easy to make different indium ingots from the metal, and the indium flakes produced are very soft.

Indium is so soft that you can easily bite it off. In addition, if you try to bend the indium ingot, you can even hear a sound of "beep", which is caused by crystal deformation inside the metal.When indium is burned in the air, an indigo flame is produced. Pure indium is a component of many alloys, and indium compounds are extensively used in electronic products, especially in the manufacture of touch screens.