Gallium
💧 In Your World
Gallium is a soft, silvery metal famous for its remarkably low melting point of 29.76 °C (85.57 °F), which means it will melt in your hand. It's a key component in advanced semiconductors like gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN), which are used to make the LEDs in Blu-ray players, traffic lights, and phone screens.
📖 The Discovery Story
Gallium was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1871, who called it "eka-aluminium" based on a gap in his periodic table. It was discovered four years later, in 1875, by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. He found it using spectroscopy and named it "gallium" from Gallia, the Latin name for his home country of France. There's a fun theory that he also named it after himself, as his name "Lecoq" means "the rooster" in French, and the Latin word for rooster is gallus.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid |
| Melting Point | 29.76 °C / 85.57 °F |
| Boiling Point | 2400 °C / 4352 °F |
| Electron Configuration | [Ar] 3d¹⁰4s²4p¹ |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | 0.0019% |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Gallium is considered non-toxic and is even used in some medical applications. However, the liquid metal can wet glass and skin, leaving a gray stain. It is also corrosive to other metals, particularly aluminum, so it should be handled with care.