Cobalt Facts
Cobalt Facts
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| Interesting Cobalt Facts: |
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| Georg Brandt is credited with isolating cobalt in 1735. |
| Even before its formal discovery, cobalt had been in use throughout history. |
| Cobalt pigments, specifically the blue, have been used for thousands of years. |
| The use of cobalt as a coloring agent dates back to the Bronze Age. |
| Historically, cobalt has been identified in ancient Egyptian art and Persian jewelry. |
| Cobalt was also found in use in the ruins of the ancient city Pompeii. |
| The cobalt pigment is most widely known for use in jewelry, glass, and paint. |
| Cobalt is only found in nature in compounds. |
| Through smelting, its pure form is hard and lustrous. |
| The smelting process of cobalt can release arsenic vapors. |
| The name cobalt comes from the German word kobold, meaning "goblin ore." |
| It is a ferromagnetic element. |
| Trace amounts of cobalt are found in most soil samples, minerals, and rocks. |
| Even less cobalt is found in most plants and animals. |
| It makes up about .0029% of the planet's crust. |
| Cobalt can often be found in copper and nickel minerals. |
| Cobalt has only one stable isotope, Co-59. |
| Co-59 is the only isotope of cobalt to exist naturally. |
| There are twenty-two known radioactive isotopes of cobalt. |
| The most stable cobalt radioisotope is Co-60, which has a half-life of more than 5.2 years. |
| Most of the other radioisotopes of cobalt have half-lives of less than one second. |
| The Democratic Republic of Congo currently extracts about 40% of the world's cobalt supply each year. |
| There are several ways to extract cobalt from ore, including froth flotation and leaching. |
| Apart from pigments, the main use for cobalt is to alloy it with other metals. |
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