Page 66 - The Periodic Table Book

27
Co Cobalt

Discovery: 1739
27 27 32 State: Solid
The distinctive purplish
Transition Metals colour gives it the Discs of pure cobalt
Forms
refined in a laboratory
nickname “red cobalt”.

Erythrite

This shiny metal
is fairly hard.
These cubic crystals
contain a sulfur
Cobaltite
compound of cobalt.

This silvery
mineral smells
like garlic when
crushed due to
the presence
of arsenic.

Skutterudite

Medieval German miners often mistook Pure cobalt is hard and shiny, and is
ores of cobalt for precious metals. When added to steel and other alloys to make
they tried to purify these, the arsenic gas them stronger. Alloys containing cobalt
released made them sick. This unwanted are used in the blades of jet engines and
side-effect led to the name kobold, which in artificial joints, such as hip and knee
64 is German for “goblin”, a mischievous spirit. joints. Cobalt is one of the few elements

064-065_Cobalt.indd 64 02/12/16 9:59 pm