No reaction to hydrochloric acid, concentrated nitric acid and aqua regia, whether in cold or hot conditions. When tantalum is immersed in sulfuric acid at 200℃ for one year, only 0. 006 mm. Experiments show that tantalum does not work on alkali solution, chlorine gas, bromine water, dilute sulfuric acid and many other agents at room temperature, but only reacts with hydrofluoric acid and hot concentrated sulfuric acid. Such conditions are relatively rare in metals.
Tantalum has a wide range of applications due to its unique properties. Tantalum can be used as an alternative to stainless steel in the production of various inorganic acids. Moreover, in the chemical, electronic and electrical industries, tantalum can replace the tasks that used to be carried by platinum, a precious metal, thus greatly reducing the cost required.
In addition, tantalum is also an important element in steel making, corrosion resistant steel and heat resistant steel alloys, which can provide special materials for the development of space technologies such as rockets, spacecraft and jet planes. Non-magnetic alloys made of tantalum and tungsten are widely used in the electrical industry, especially tantalum carbide, which is made of tantalum and carbon and has a greater hardness than diamond even at high temperatures.
Turning tools made of it can cut many hard alloys at high speed; Bits made of it can replace the hardest alloy or diamond. Therefore, tantalum is also considered as a "vitamin" in smelting.
Tantalum can also play an important role in modern medicine. Research proves that tantalum not only does not have any harm to the human body, and the human body's muscles can also grow on it, which is called biological compatibility in medicine.
Doctors use tantalum's properties to repair and close fractures and defects in fractured skulls and limbs. Tantalum can also be made into a filament a tenth thinner than a human hair, for use as a suture in visceral surgery or as an artificial eye. It can even replace tendons and nerve fibers.
Doctors use tantalum plates to make artificial ears, which are attached to the head and skin grafts from the legs. After a period of time, the grafts grow so well that it is hardly visible as an artificial tantalum ear.
