Tellurium ( /tɨˈlʊəriəm/ tə-loor-ee-əm or /tɛˈlʲʊəriəm/ te-loor-ee-əm) is a chemical element that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid which looks similar to tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is occasionally found in native form, as elemental crystals. Tellurium is far more common in the universe than on Earth. Its extreme rarity in the Earth's crust, comparabl...
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Tellurium ( /tɨˈlʊəriəm/ tə-loor-ee-əm or /tɛˈlʲʊəriəm/ te-loor-ee-əm) is a chemical element that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid which looks similar to tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is occasionally found in native form, as elemental crystals. Tellurium is far more common in the universe than on Earth. Its extreme rarity in the Earth's crust, comparable to that of platinum, is partly due to its high atomic number, but also due to its formation of a volatile hydride which caused the element to be lost to space as a gas during the hot nebular formation of the planet.
Tellurium was discovered in Transylvania (today part of Romania) in 1782 by Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein in a mineral containing tellurium and gold. Martin Heinrich Klaproth named the new element in 1798 after the Latin word for "earth", tellus. Gold telluride minerals (responsible for the name of Telluride, Colorado) are...
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