Presently, the major end uses are fibre-optic systems, infrared optics, solar cell applications, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Historically, the first decade of semiconductor electronics was based entirely on germanium. Today, germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of zinc), though germanium is also recovered commercially from silver, lead, and copper ores.Įlemental germanium is used as a semiconductor in transistors and various other electronic devices. Winkler named the element after his country, Germany. Although the new element somewhat resembled arsenic and antimony in appearance, the combining ratios in compounds agreed with Mendeleev's predictions for a relative of silicon.
Nearly two decades later, in 1886, Clemens Winkler found the new element along with silver and sulfur, in an uncommon mineral called argyrodite. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties from its position on his periodic table, and called the element ekasilicon. Germanium ranks near fiftieth in relative abundance of the elements in the Earth's crust. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature.īecause it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was discovered comparatively late in the history of chemistry. Pure germanium is an indirect semiconductor with an appearance similar to elemental silicon. It is a lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors silicon and tin. Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32.
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