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Rating of the strongest metals on the planet. The heaviest metals in the world

When we're talking about about hard and durable metal, then in his imagination a person immediately draws a warrior with a sword and in armor. Well, or with a saber, and definitely made of Damascus steel. But steel, although durable, is not a pure metal; it is produced by alloying iron with carbon and some other additive metals. And, if necessary, the steel is processed to change its properties.

Lightweight, durable silver-white metal

Each of the additives, be it chromium, nickel or vanadium, is responsible for a certain quality. But titanium is added for strength - the hardest alloys are obtained.

According to one version, the metal got its name from the Titans, the powerful and fearless children of the Earth goddess Gaia. But according to another version, the silvery substance is named after the fairy queen Titania.

Titanium was discovered by German and English chemists Gregor and Klaproth independently of each other, six years apart. This happened at the end of the 18th century. The substance immediately took its place in Mendeleev’s periodic table. Three decades later, the first sample of titanium metal was obtained. And the metal was not used for quite a long time due to its fragility. Exactly until 1925 - it was then, after a series of experiments, that pure titanium was obtained using the iodide method. The discovery was a real breakthrough. Titan turned out to be technologically advanced, and designers and engineers immediately paid attention to it. And now metal is obtained from ore mainly by the magnesium-thermal method, which was proposed in 1940.

If we touch upon the physical properties of titanium, we can note its high specific strength, strength at high temperatures, low density and corrosion resistance. The mechanical strength of titanium is two times higher than that of iron and six times higher than that of aluminum. At high temperatures, where light alloys no longer work (magnesium and aluminum based), titanium alloys come to the rescue. For example, an airplane at an altitude of 20 kilometers reaches a speed three times higher than the speed of sound. And the temperature of its body is about 300 degrees Celsius. Only titanium alloy can withstand such loads.

The metal ranks tenth in terms of prevalence in nature. Titanium is mined in South Africa, Russia, China, Ukraine, Japan and India. And this is not a complete list of countries.

Titanium is the world's strongest and lightest metal

The list of possibilities for using metal is respectable. These are the military industry, osteoprostheses in medicine, jewelry and sports products, mobile phone circuit boards and much more. Rocket, aircraft, and shipbuilding designers constantly praise titanium. Even the chemical industry has not left the metal unattended. Titanium is excellent for casting because the contours when cast are precise and have a smooth surface. The arrangement of atoms in titanium is amorphous. And this guarantees high tensile strength, toughness, excellent magnetic properties.

Hard metals with the highest density

Some of the hardest metals are also osmium and iridium. These are substances from the platinum group; they have the highest, almost identical, density.

Iridium was discovered in 1803. The metal was discovered by a chemist from England, Smithson Tennat, while studying natural platinum from South America. By the way, “iridium” is translated from ancient Greek as “rainbow”.

The hardest metal is quite difficult to obtain, since it is almost absent in nature. And often the metal is found in meteorites that fell to the ground. According to scientists, on our planet the content of iridium should be much higher. But due to the properties of the metal - siderophilicity - it is located at the very depths of the earth's bowels.

Iridium is quite difficult to process both thermally and chemically. The metal does not react with acids, even combinations of acids at temperatures less than 100 degrees. At the same time, the substance is subject to oxidation processes in aqua regia (this is a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids).

The iridium isotope 193 m 2 is of interest as a source of electrical energy. Since the half-life of the metal is 241 years. Iridium has found widespread use in paleontology and industry. It is used in making pen quills and determining the age of different layers of the earth.

But osmium was discovered a year later than iridium. This solid metal was found in the chemical composition of a precipitate of platinum, which was dissolved in aqua regia. And the name “osmium” comes from the ancient Greek word for “smell.” The metal is not subject to mechanical stress. Moreover, one liter of osmium is several times heavier than ten liters of water. However, this property has not yet been used.

Osmium is mined in American and Russian mines. Its deposits are also rich in South Africa. Quite often the metal is found in iron meteorites. Of interest to specialists is osmium-187, which is exported only from Kazakhstan. It is used to determine the age of meteorites. It is worth noting that just one gram of the isotope costs 10 thousand dollars.

Well, osmium is used in industry. And not in its pure form, but in the form of a hard alloy with tungsten. Produced from the substance of incandescent lamps. Osmium is a catalyst in the production of ammonia. Cutting parts for surgical needs are rarely made from metal.

The hardest pure metal

The hardest of the purest metals on the planet is chromium. It lends itself perfectly to mechanical processing. The bluish-white metal was discovered in 1766 in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg. The mineral was then called “Siberian red lead.” Its modern name is crocoite. A few years after the discovery, namely, in 1797, the French chemist Vauquelin isolated a new metal from the metal, already refractory. Experts today believe that the resulting substance is chromium carbide.

The name of this element is derived from the Greek “color”, because the metal itself is famous for the variety of colors of its compounds. Chromium is quite easy to find in nature and is common. You can find the metal in South Africa, which ranks first in production, as well as in Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Russia and Madagascar. There are deposits in Turkey, Armenia, India, Brazil and the Philippines. Experts especially value certain chromium compounds - chromium iron ore and crocoite.

The hardest metal in the world is tungsten

Tungsten is a chemical element that is the hardest when compared to other metals. Its melting point is unusually high, higher only for carbon, but it is not a metallic element.

But the natural hardness of tungsten at the same time does not deprive it of flexibility and pliability, which allows you to forge any necessary parts from it. It is its flexibility and heat resistance that makes tungsten an ideal material for smelting small parts of lighting fixtures and TV parts, for example.

Tungsten is also used in more serious areas, for example, weapons manufacturing - for the manufacture of counterweights and artillery shells. Tungsten owes this to its high density, which makes it the main substance of heavy alloys. The density of tungsten is close to that of gold - only a few tenths make up the difference.

On the website you can read which metals are the softest, how they are used, and what is made from them.
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The first metal that humanity began to use for economic purposes was copper: it is easy to process, it is found quite often in nature, so it is not surprising that it served as the material for the first metal knives and axes. A little later, people discovered that by adding tin to copper, they could get a much stronger alloy - bronze. And when they mastered iron, it turned out that in its pure form it is not much stronger than copper, but when combined with carbon it acquires much better strength properties. Medieval alchemists, in addition to searching for the philosopher's stone, also experimented with alloys, trying to determine what the hardest metal in the world was, but all experiments confirmed: alloys are stronger than pure metal, no matter what it is. But what is the situation today?

The hardest

All the most durable “pure” metals were discovered by man quite late. The reason is simple: they are much less common than the iron or copper we are used to. There are several methods for determining the hardness of materials: Mohs, Vickers, Brinell and Rockwell, the data of which differ slightly. On the Mohs scale, for example, iron has a value of only 4, and the highest hardness of diamond is 10. And a dozen metals whose hardness is 5 units or higher look like this:

Most of this “magnificent ten” are extremely rare in nature (for example, the annual production of ruthenium in the world is about 18 tons, and rhenium is about 40 tons) or have radioactivity, making their use in everyday life difficult. And all of them have a very significant cost, with the possible exception of chromium. It is the high hardness and relatively low price of this metal that made it popular in the manufacture of durable alloys.

Use of the hardest metals

Due to the fact that most of the hardest metals are very rare in nature, their strength qualities remain unclaimed or are in extremely limited demand, for example, for coating components and parts of mechanisms subjected to the greatest load. But using rhenium or ruthenium additives in the manufacture of tool steel or armor, you see, is stupid. There simply aren’t enough of these metals for everything. Therefore, chromium turned out to be in great demand. It is the most important alloying additive, improving both the strength and corrosion resistance of alloys.

Some of the solid metals are used in very small quantities in medicine, in the creation of space technology, as catalysts and in some other areas. In these cases, it was not their hardness that was in demand, but other accompanying qualities. Tungsten, for example, as the most refractory metal on the planet (melting point +3422 Celsius), has found application in the creation of incandescent filaments for lighting devices. It is added in small quantities to alloys that must withstand high temperatures. long time– for example, in the metallurgical industry.

Uranus

Uranium, like tungsten, is the hardest metal on Earth, but uranium is much more common on our planet, and therefore has found much wider application. And its radioactivity did not interfere with this. The best known use of uranium is as a “fuel” in nuclear power plants. It is also used in geology to determine the age of rocks and in the chemical industry.

The strength properties and high specific gravity of uranium (it is 19 times heavier than water) were useful in the creation of armor-piercing ammunition. In this case, it is not pure metal that is used, but its depleted version, almost entirely consisting of the weakly radioactive isotope uranium-238. Heavy cores made of this metal perfectly penetrate even well-armored targets. The extent to which the residual effects of the use of such ammunition harm the environment and humans is not yet known for certain, since too little statistical material has been accumulated on this issue.

If strength is generally understood as the ability of solids to resist destruction and maintain the shape of a product, then the following metals can be classified as super-strong and durable metals.

Name titanium was appropriated by Martin Klaproth, a German researcher who discovered a new metal not for its chemical qualities, but in honor of the mythological heroes of the children of the earth - the titans.

The occurrence of titanium in nature is in 10th place; it is most concentrated in minerals. Without this metal, the latest discoveries in the field of rocket, ship and aircraft construction would not be possible. Titanium is used in all areas of industry, in the manufacture of medical implants and body armor in the food industry and agriculture.

2nd place

Light gray tungsten , literally translated as wolf's cream, is the most refractory metal, so it is indispensable in the manufacture of heat-resistant surfaces and products. The filament in a regular light bulb is made of tungsten filament.

That metal is used in ballistic missiles, in the manufacture of shells and bullets, and in gyroscopic high-speed rotors.

3rd place

Tantalum It is almost impossible to modify, because it begins to melt at a temperature of 3015 degrees Celsius, and boils at a boiling point of 5300 degrees. It is impossible for an ordinary person to even imagine such heat. The bluish-gray metal is the most indispensable in modern medicine; wire and sheets are made from it to cover damaged bones.

Opened in 1817 molybdenum, steel-gray metal is practically never found in its pure form. The refractoriness of this metal is amazing, the melting point of which exceeds 2620 degrees. Molybdenum has found its greatest use in the military industry, where gun and armor steels are made.

5th place

Aviation and mechanical engineering, nuclear energy and astronautics use niobium, a metal very similar in its properties to tantalum. Niobium is practically unaffected by any substances, neither salts nor acids, it is difficult to melt and difficult to oxidize, which is what makes the unique metal so in demand.

6th place

The heaviest metal on earth iridium It has the most durable anti-corrosion properties; even aqua regia cannot melt it. Adding iridium to other alloys increases their ability to resist corrosion.

7th place

Beryllium is one of the rare metals that are mined in the earth. Its unique qualities, such as high thermal conductivity and fire resistance, have made this metal indispensable in the manufacture of nuclear reactors. Beryllium alloys rightfully occupy a leading place in the aerospace and aviation industries.

8th place

Light blue chrome , which is also one of the strongest metals, due to its unique properties, when added to steel alloys, it makes them harder and more corrosion-resistant. Chrome parts have a beautiful appearance that does not change over time.

9th place

The Saxons treat their legends with care; the name of the hero of one of them, Kobold, was immortalized in the name of the metal - cobalt . Very often, when mining ore, seekers mistook the gray-pink metal for silver.

Refractory metal, as an additive, increases the heat resistance, hardness and wear resistance of steel. Thanks to its unique qualities, cobalt is indispensable in metal-cutting machines.

Hafnium – a light gray metal with unique qualities is mined from zirconium ore. Solid, refractory hafnium has a unique feature; the fact is that its temperature-capacity dependence is anomalous and does not fall under any laws of physics.

Hafnium is used in nuclear energy and optics, for strengthening various alloys and making glass for X-rays; it is difficult to imagine military production without it.

A common belief about hardness is diamond or damask steel/damascus steel. If the first mineral is superior to all simple substances existing on Earth that nature has created, then the amazing properties of blades made of rare steel are due to the skill of swordsmiths and additives from other metals. Many technical alloys, used, for example, for the production of super-hard cutters in the engineering industry, creating durable, reliable tools with unique properties, are associated with these additives in the usual symbiosis of iron and carbon, in short, traditionally called steel - chromium, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel. When readers ask what the hardest metal in the world is, they are bombarded with a barrage of conflicting information on the pages of websites. In this role, according to the authors of various articles, either tungsten or chromium, or iridium with osmium, or titanium with tantalum.

In order to get through the jungle of not always correctly interpreted, albeit accurate facts, it is worth turning to the original source - the system of elements contained both in the composition and in other cosmic objects, left to humanity by the great Russian chemist and physicist D.I. Mendeleev. He had encyclopedic knowledge, made many scientific breakthroughs in knowledge about the structure, composition, and interaction of substances, in addition to the famous table based on the fundamental periodic law he discovered, named after him.

The planets closest to the Sun - Mercury, Venus, Mars, together with our planet, are classified as one - the terrestrial group. There are reasons for this not only among astronomers, physicists and mathematicians, but also among geologists and chemists. The reason for such conclusions among the latter is, among other things, the fact that they all mainly consist of silicates, i.e. various derivatives of the element silicon, as well as numerous metal compounds from Dmitry Ivanovich’s table.

In particular, our planet mostly (up to 99%) consists of ten elements:

But man, in addition to the iron and alloys based on it necessary for survival and development, has always been much more attracted to precious metals, often respectfully called noble metals - gold and silver, and later platinum.

According to the scientific classification adopted by chemists, the platinum group includes ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and osmium with iridium. All of them also belong to noble metals. Based on their atomic mass, they are conventionally divided into two subgroups:

The last two are of particular interest for our pseudo-scientific investigation on the topic of who is the hardest here. This is due to the fact that the large atomic mass compared to other elements: 190.23 for osmium, 192.22 for iridium, according to the laws of physics, also implies a huge specific density, and, consequently, the hardness of these metals.

If dense, heavy gold and lead are soft, plastic substances that are easy to process, then osmium and iridium, discovered at the beginning of the 19th century, turned out to be fragile. Here it is necessary to remember that the measure of this physical property is that a diamond, which can be used to inscribe on any other hard material of natural or artificial origin without much effort, is also extremely fragile, i.e. It's fairly easy to break. Although, at first glance, this seems almost impossible.

In addition, osmium and palladium have many more interesting properties:

Very high refractoriness.
Resistant to corrosion and oxidation even when heated to high temperatures.
Resistant to concentrated acids and other aggressive compounds.

Therefore, along with platinum, including in the form of compounds with it, they are used in the production of catalysts for many chemical processes, high-precision devices, equipment, tools in the medical, scientific, military, and space sectors of human activity.

It is osmium and iridium, and scientists after research believe that this property is approximately equally given to them by nature, are the hardest metals in the world.

And everything would be fine, but not very good. The fact is that both their presence in the earth’s crust and, accordingly, the global production of these very minerals are negligible:

10 -11% is their content in the solid shell of the planet.
The total amount of pure metal produced per year is within the following limits: 4 tons for iridium, 1 t for osmium.
The price of osmium is approximately equal to the price of gold.

It is clear that these rare earth, expensive metals, despite their hardness, cannot even be used to a limited extent as raw materials for production; perhaps as additives to alloys, compounds with other metals to impart unique properties.

Who is for them?

But a person would not be himself if he had not found a replacement for iridium with osmium. Since it is inappropriate and too expensive to use them, then attention was not without success turned to other metals that have found their application in different situations and industries for the creation of new alloys, composite materials, production of equipment, machines and mechanisms for both civil and military use:

Although the hardest metal in the world, or rather two of them - iridium and osmium, have shown their unique properties only in laboratory conditions, and also as negligible percentage additives to alloys, other compounds for creating new materials necessary for humans should be grateful to nature and for this gift. At the same time, there is no doubt that the inquisitive minds of talented scientists and brilliant inventors will come up with new substances with unique properties, as has already happened with the synthesis of fullerenes, which turned out to be harder than diamond, which is already surprising.

The use of metals in everyday life began at the dawn of human development, and the first metal was copper, since it is available in nature and can be easily processed. It is not without reason that archaeologists during excavations find various products and household utensils made of this metal. In the process of evolution, people gradually learned to combine various metals, obtaining increasingly durable alloys suitable for making tools, and later weapons. Nowadays, experiments continue, thanks to which it is possible to identify the strongest metals in the world.

high specific strength;
resistance to high temperatures;
low density;
corrosion resistance;
mechanical and chemical resistance.

Titanium is used in the military industry, aviation medicine, shipbuilding, and other areas of production.

The most famous element, considered one of the strongest metals in the world, and under normal conditions is a weak radioactive metal. In nature, it is found both in a free state and in acidic sedimentary rocks. It is quite heavy, widely distributed everywhere and has paramagnetic properties, flexibility, malleability, and relative ductility. Uranium is used in many areas of production.

Known as the most refractory metal in existence, it is one of the strongest metals in the world. It is a solid transitional element of a shiny silver-gray color. It has high strength, excellent refractoriness, and resistance to chemical influences. Due to its properties, it can be forged and drawn into a thin thread. Known as tungsten filament.

Among the representatives of this group, it is considered a high-density transition metal with a silvery-white color. It occurs in nature in its pure form, but is found in molybdenum and copper raw materials. It is characterized by high hardness and density, and has excellent refractoriness. It has increased strength, which is not lost due to repeated temperature changes. Rhenium is an expensive metal and has a high cost. Used in modern technology and electronics.

A shiny silver-white metal with a slightly bluish tint, it belongs to the platinum group and is considered one of the strongest metals in the world. Similar to iridium, it has a high atomic density, high strength and hardness. Since osmium is a platinum metal, it has properties similar to iridium: refractoriness, hardness, brittleness, resistance to mechanical stress, as well as to the influence of aggressive environments. It has found wide application in surgery, electron microscopy, the chemical industry, rocketry, and electronic equipment.

It belongs to the group of metals and is a light gray element with relative hardness and high toxicity. Due to its unique properties, beryllium is used in a wide variety of production areas:

nuclear energy;
aerospace engineering;
metallurgy;
laser technology;
nuclear energy.

Due to its high hardness, beryllium is used in the production of alloying alloys and refractory materials.

Next on the list of the ten strongest metals in the world is chromium - a hard, high-strength metal of a bluish-white color, resistant to alkalis and acids. It occurs in nature in its pure form and is widely used in various branches of science, technology and production. Chromium is used to create various alloys that are used in the manufacture of medical and chemical processing equipment. When combined with iron, it forms an alloy called ferrochrome, which is used in the manufacture of metal-cutting tools.

Tantalum deserves bronze in the ranking, as it is one of the strongest metals in the world. It is a silvery metal with high hardness and atomic density. Due to the formation of an oxide film on its surface, it has a leaden tint.

The distinctive properties of tantalum are high strength, refractoriness, resistance to corrosion, and resistance to aggressive environments. The metal is a fairly ductile metal and can be easily machined. Today tantalum is successfully used:

in the chemical industry;
during the construction of nuclear reactors;
in metallurgical production;
when creating heat-resistant alloys.

The second place in the ranking of the most durable metals in the world is occupied by ruthenium, a silvery metal belonging to the platinum group. Its peculiarity is the presence of living organisms in the muscle tissue. Valuable properties of ruthenium are high strength, hardness, refractoriness, chemical resistance, and the ability to form complex compounds. Ruthenium is considered a catalyst for many chemical reactions and acts as a material for the manufacture of electrodes, contacts, and sharp tips.

The ranking of the most durable metals in the world is headed by iridium - a silver-white, hard and refractory metal that belongs to the platinum group. In nature, the high-strength element is extremely rare and is often combined with osmium. Due to its natural hardness, it is difficult to machine and is highly resistant to chemicals. Iridium reacts with great difficulty to exposure to halogens and sodium peroxide.

This metal plays an important role in everyday life. It is added to titanium, chromium and tungsten to improve resistance to acidic environments, used in the manufacture of stationery, and used in jewelry to create jewelry. The cost of iridium remains high due to its limited presence in nature.