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Bismuth telluride is a compound of bismuth and tellurium. This would seem pedantic were it not for the fact that tellurium is rare as gold. There's another tel

by scythe 15y ago

Bismuth telluride is a compound of bismuth and tellurium. This would seem pedantic were it not for the fact that tellurium is rare as gold. There's another tellurium-based pipe dream in the form of cadmium telluride solar cells, which have the lucky coincidence of being highly efficient and very cheap to manufacture. Unfortunately... rare as gold. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%... -- tellurium variously at 0.005, 0.001, and 0.001 ppm, and gold at 0.0011, 0.0031, and 0.004 ppm. So "similarly rare." Friends don't let friends try to save the world with tellurium.

Daniel_Newby 15y ago
"There's another tellurium-based pipe dream in the form of cadmium telluride solar cells, ..." Which have the benefit of using a sub-micron-thickness layer of CdTe, so that very large scale production is plausible if new tellurium sources can be developed. (They probably can.) This insane thermoelectric approach uses bulk telluride. Production cannot plausibly ever scale to make this an important source of energy.
- scythe 15y ago
  Mhm. The math for that one is not too bad, requiring a "vanishingly tiny" amount of Te per m^2, so that our current production gives a little over a gigawatt's worth per year. We'd need "merely" two orders of magnitude increase. (old explanation removed) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride_photovoltaics#cite_note-34 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride_photovoltaics... It's actually more up-in-the-air than I thought about twenty minutes ago -- tellurium has not been widely prospected, and the source du jour is undersea ocean ridges: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/reprints/Hein_GCA_67.pdf http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/reprints/Hein_GCA_67.pdf ( http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:FeKPblDo6GYJ:walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/reprints/Hein_GCA_67.pdf+tellurium-rich+ferromanganese+crusts&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj5ODfjmzgQVMi96rhRj2bXy2i0cTMtgmzZYpX7ieU1VBr8NIf3hOqr1ejrnZ4WFYcALjdJjuuMI49L0wlPyCZzUByMsgZNzRDcUBxZ1EwYYl1rJoakRZVlt8uyg44tuPmfb9IS&sig=AHIEtbTgIIegE-ZaUzTib8mHSTf717Jzrw http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:FeKPblDo6GYJ:w... ) I'm still a skeptic.
athom 15y ago
That's very interesting, but I can't say I've heard of Glenn Beck touting Tellurium Exchange. Nor has anyone told my why now may be the best time ever to own tellurium, although your post is giving me a pretty good idea. I suspect rarity has less to do with the issues surrounding gold than its ancient desirability, its role throughout history, and the cultural baggage it's picked up in consequence. You probably carry as much rare as gold material in your mobile phone as you'll find in one of those solar cells, and if not, the platinum in your car's catalytic converter may more than make up the difference. Don't let one minor inconvenience get in your way. ;)

by scythe 15y ago

Daniel_Newby 15y ago

"There's another tellurium-based pipe dream in the form of cadmium telluride solar cells, ..." Which have the benefit of using a sub-micron-thickness layer of CdTe, so that very large scale production is plausible if new tellurium sources can be developed. (They probably can.) This insane thermoelectric approach uses bulk telluride. Production cannot plausibly ever scale to make this an important source of energy.

scythe 15y ago
Mhm. The math for that one is not too bad, requiring a "vanishingly tiny" amount of Te per m^2, so that our current production gives a little over a gigawatt's worth per year. We'd need "merely" two orders of magnitude increase. (old explanation removed) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride_photovoltaics#cite_note-34 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride_photovoltaics... It's actually more up-in-the-air than I thought about twenty minutes ago -- tellurium has not been widely prospected, and the source du jour is undersea ocean ridges: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/reprints/Hein_GCA_67.pdf http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/reprints/Hein_GCA_67.pdf ( http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:FeKPblDo6GYJ:walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/reprints/Hein_GCA_67.pdf+tellurium-rich+ferromanganese+crusts&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj5ODfjmzgQVMi96rhRj2bXy2i0cTMtgmzZYpX7ieU1VBr8NIf3hOqr1ejrnZ4WFYcALjdJjuuMI49L0wlPyCZzUByMsgZNzRDcUBxZ1EwYYl1rJoakRZVlt8uyg44tuPmfb9IS&sig=AHIEtbTgIIegE-ZaUzTib8mHSTf717Jzrw http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:FeKPblDo6GYJ:w... ) I'm still a skeptic.

athom 15y ago

That's very interesting, but I can't say I've heard of Glenn Beck touting Tellurium Exchange. Nor has anyone told my why now may be the best time ever to own tellurium, although your post is giving me a pretty good idea. I suspect rarity has less to do with the issues surrounding gold than its ancient desirability, its role throughout history, and the cultural baggage it's picked up in consequence. You probably carry as much rare as gold material in your mobile phone as you'll find in one of those solar cells, and if not, the platinum in your car's catalytic converter may more than make up the difference. Don't let one minor inconvenience get in your way. ;)