Nickel for electronic & electrical

Commercially pure nickel contains only traces of minor elements. Available in Ni 200 and 201, pure nickel has good mechanical properties and excellent resistance to many corrosive environments. Other features include high thermal and electrical conductivities which is often desirable in electronic applications. This material is often used in electrical and electronics parts, such as fuel cell and batteries. The most important application for battery is nickel-metal hydride (NiMH).

Tungsten and tungsten copper for electronic & electrical

Tungsten is practically the only material used for electron emitters. Although other, more electropositive, metals would yield higher emission rates, the advantage of tungsten is its extremely low vapour pressure even at high temperatures.

This property is also important for electrical contact materials. While more conductive metals like copper or silver evaporate (erode) under the conditions of an electric arc, tungsten withstands these.

Tungsten is one of the most important components in modern integrated circuitry and tungsten-copper heat sinks are used to remove the heat of microelectronic devices. 

Molybdenum and molybdenum copper for electronic & electrical

Molybdenum’s role in the electronics market has been an important one since the earliest days of vacuum tubes. Common electronic applications include components used to manufacture electrical devices, including setter tiles for sintering ceramic substrates and multilayer ceramic circuits, as well as physical-vapor deposition masks. Molybdenum is also used for thermal-management applications when paired with copper and is a necessary part of high-power diodes and rectifiers as well as field-emitter components in flat-panel displays.

Tantalum for electronic & electrical

The single largest use of tantalum (powder and wire) is in the fabrication of electrolytic capacitors for the electronics industry. An oxide layer which forms on the surface of tantalum can act as an insulating layer. Because tantalum can be used to coat other metals with a very thin layer, a high capacitance can be achieved in a small volume.Applications for tantalum capacitors include mobile phones, computers, communication systems, and instruments and controls for aircraft, missiles, ships, and weapon systems.

In the case of capacitors, tantalum-based capacitors offer high reliability, resistance to high temperatures and a broad range of capacitance. The range of capacitance provided by tantalum capacitors can be largely but not completely covered by either aluminum, ceramic or niobium-based capacitors. Especially ceramic and niobium capacitors are replacing tantalum capacitors in many applications. However, it is expected that tantalum capacitors will remain first-choice for applications requiring high reliability and resistance to elevated temperature where cost is not a primary consideration.

Tantalum metal is also used in the electronics industry as a barrier to prevent copper from polluting silicon in products such as computer chips and storage devices. This separation is necessary because the presence of copper in silicon leads to device degradation and failure. Tantalum is suitable for this purpose because it and its nitrides do not form any compounds with copper.