The texture of tantalum is very tough, and its melting point is up to 2996 degrees celsius, after tungsten and rhenium. Tantalum is malleable and can be drawn into filaments or made into thin foil. The coefficient of thermal expansion of tantalum is very small, which only expands by 6.6 parts per million per degree Celsius each increase of 1 degree Celsius. In addition, its tenacity is even better than that of copper.
Tantalum also has excellent chemical properties and high resistant to corrosion. Under both cold and hot conditions, tantalum has no reaction to hydrochloric acid, concentrated nitric acid and aqua regia. Bango Alloy professionals mention that if people place tantalum into the 200 degrees celsius of sulfuric acid for one year, its surface damage is only 0.006 mm. At room temperature, tantalum does not react with alkali solutions, chlorine gas, bromine water, dilute sulfuric acid and many other agents, but only with hydrofluoric acid and hot concentrated sulfuric acid. Such cases are rare in metals.
Tantalum has a wide range of applications due to its characteristics. Tantalum can be used as a substitute for stainless steel in the production equipment of various inorganic acids, whose service life is dozens of times longer than that of stainless steel. In addition, tantalum can replace tasks previously undertaken by precious metal platinum in the chemical, electronic, electrical and other industries, which greatly reduce the cost.
In addition, tantalum is also an important element for refining super-strong steel, corrosion-resistant steel and heat-resistant steel alloys. Tantalum can provide special materials for the development of space technologies such as rockets, spacecraft and jets. 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, has a great hardness. Even under high temperature conditions, its hardness is equal to that of diamond. A turning tool made of tantalum can cut many hard alloys at high speed. Various drills made of tantalum can replace the hardest alloy or diamond. Therefore, tantalum is also considered as a "vitamin" in smelting.
