Bismuth

Bismuth is a chemical element of group V of the main subgroup - it has atomic number 83. It received its name presumably from the Latin Bismuthum or bisemutum, which comes from the German weisse Masse, "white mass".

A simple substance is, under normal conditions, a shiny silvery metal with a pinkish tint.

Application area

Pure bismuth is used in instruments for measuring magnetic field strength. Molten bismuth can serve as a coolant in nuclear reactors.

Low-melting bismuth alloys, which also contain lead, tin, cadmium, are used in dental prosthetics, for making clichés from wooden matrices, as consumable plugs in automatic fire-fighting devices, when soldering caps on armor-piercing shells, etc.

Bismuth-tellurium compounds, due to the combination of thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity and thermoelectromotive force, can make it possible to convert thermal energy into electrical energy with a high efficiency (~ 7%), therefore they are used for thermoelectric generators. The addition of bismuth to stainless steels improves their machinability.

Bismuth compounds are also used in glassmaking (increase the refractive index) and ceramics (give fusible enamels).

Bismuth compounds are used in medicine as a drying and disinfecting agent. They treat syphilis and many non-specific inflammatory processes.

Scientists have found that bismuth salts are practically the only active agent that can destroy Helicobacter pylori bacteria that cause peptic ulcers.

Bismuth nitrate is used to treat inflammatory processes that occur in the digestive system. This salt helps with ulcers, enterocolitis and colitis. Bismuth subcitrate and bismuth subnitrate are used as antiulcer drugs.

Since preparations containing bismuth reduce the toxic effect that occurs during anticancer chemotherapy, they are prescribed before it is carried out. Bismuth oxochloride is a radiopaque agent and filler used in the manufacture of blood vessels.

Soluble bismuth salts are poisonous, similar in nature to mercury.