Page 67 - The Periodic Table Book

Uses

Tough and lightweight
artificial joints can be
Artificial made from an alloy of
hip joint
cobalt and chromium.

This part of
the joint is screwed
into the hip bone. Permanent magnet
This magnet
can work at
temperatures as
high as 800°C
(1,400°F).
These blades made of
a cobalt alloy stay hard
even when very hot.

Cobalt
blue paints
have been
in use since
3000 bce.

Jet engine turbine

This blue glass
FORMING AN ISOTOPE is manufactured
using cobalt Tiffany lamp This intense
compounds. colour does not
Cobalt-60 is an isotope, or form, of this
element. It is created artificially in nuclear fade easily over
time or upon
reactors. Because of its radioactivity, it exposure to light.
is useful in some cancer treatments.

A neutron is fired at
the cobalt-59 nucleus. Added neutron

Irradiated food
This symbol shows that
this fruit has been treated
with radioactive cobalt-60. Cobalt blue paint

Cobalt-59 is a Cobalt-60 is a
stable atom with radioactive atom
59 neutrons. with 60 neutrons.

that can be used to make a permanent employed to irradiate food, a process by
magnet. Large permanent magnets are which food is exposed to a tiny dose of
made from a tough alloy of cobalt, nickel, radiation to kill harmful germs. Cobalt can
and aluminium, called alnico. A radioactive also produce a deep shade of blue: cobalt
form of cobalt, called cobalt-60, is produced blue paints and dyes are formed by reacting
in nuclear reactors. This form is widely aluminium with cobalt oxide. 65

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