Indium, a material with vivid luster is a rare metal of course. It is a soft, silvery-white malleable metal element with an atomic weight of 114.81. The features of indium are more closely resembles with zinc, while it is chemically similar to gallium and aluminum. The metal is available in the Earth's crust three times more abundant as compared to the metal like silver or mercury.
The presence of Indium has been observed primarily in the sphalerite and zinc-sulfide ore mineral. Usually, during the production process of zinc, some residues generated. Indium is the creation of those residues. Some amount of Indium also exists in the metal like lead, iron and copper ores. Often its occurrence in nature found with some other base metal ores. A pure form of metal indium is considered to be non-toxic.
Indium has some distinct features over other metal of its group. This metal is very ductile, flexible, and malleable. That is the reason why it can be easily formed into all desired variety of forms and fabrications. The main industrial application of indium is known to be in coatings for the application of flat panel display trade industry. To form indium-tin-oxide, indium needs to be chemically processed with tin-oxide which facilitates it to be used in the jobs of electrical conductivity as well as optical transparency.
The other unique properties of indium are that it can retain its softness even at temperatures of zero degrees. It makes the metal suitable for freezing and to work at a very low temperature as well as vacuum application. Some significant properties of indium metal are listed below.
• Alloy with a low melting point: This is an alloy with a low melting point so it can be easily used in the high-end optical industry. This is suitable where lenses are held through the alloy in place of the lens surfaces. It minimizes surface distortion at the time of the polishing process.
• Lead-free and mercury-free solder industries: Everybody knows that the production, as well as the consumption of more and more electronics goods, is spoiling our environment. Thus the best part of Indium is that it can be typically used by environmentally friendly manufacturers of electronics goods. It is suitable for the application like production of high-energy alkaline dry cell batteries. However, it reduces the maximum use of mercury and lead in the process of soldering.
• Cold Welding: Oxide-free indium possesses the capability of cold welding. That means two parts coated with the metal can be attached together without the help of applying heat or chemicals.
• Reduce gold scavenging: Use of the metal indium to the process of solder reduces the propensity to dissolve gold into the joint while soldering gold and gold plated metal.
• Bond glass, quartz, and ceramics: The metal-like silvery-white malleable metal is very difficult to be bonded with the help of traditional solders. The cold-welding properties of Indium make it possible to bond even in a variety of non-metal applications.
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