September 5, 2019 • 9 mins
The element cobalt is responsible for brilliant blue paints and rechargeable batteries alike. Learn how it works and why its supply is uncertain in this episode of BrainStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren boble Bomb here coming in at number twenty seven
on your periodic table. Is cobalt, an essential element in
rechargeable batteries and jet engines. In The U. S. Department
of Interior issued a list of thirty five critical minerals
(00:22):
that the U. S economy can't live without, including cobalt.
Cobalt is even considered a national security risk because most
of it is mined in a politically unstable region of
Africa and refined in China. Let's learn more about this
versatile metal, first prized for its ability to create vivid
blue pottery, and now the key to the future of
electric cars. We'll start off with a bit of folklore.
(00:46):
Cobalt got its name from Gnomes. Centuries ago, miners in
the Schnee Barrack Mountains of modern day Germany ran into
a problem. They carved into the mountain side in search
of metal rich ore, specifically silver and nickel, but when
they tried to smelt the ore into its valuable metal components,
some impurity kept spoiling the process. Being the Middle Ages,
(01:07):
the miners blamed their smelting issues on troublesome co Belts
or Copolds, a medieval German word for gnome or goblin.
According to legend, the Copolds lived in the Schneeberg mines
and liked to prank humans by replacing the silver and
nickel in their ore with a foul mineral that released
poisonous fumes during the smelting process. They were also blamed
for Caven's. As with all good ancient legends, the gnome
(01:31):
story had a grain of truth to it. The silver
and nickel smelting process was complicated by high levels of
naturally occurring cobalt in the Schneberg rock, and a related
mineral called cobalite contains arsenic and sulfur, which could be
deadly if released in an air tight mind shaft. Cobalt
as its own element was first isolated and named in
seventeen thirty five by the Swedish chemist Giore Brandt, an
(01:55):
early critic of alchemy and probably not a fan of
gnomes either. Although cobalt didn't get its name until the
eighteenth century, Cobalt based pigments and dyes have been prized
for their rich blue hue for millennia. The Cobalt Institute
says that pottery and glass containing cobalt based glazes has
been recovered from Egyptian tombs dating back at least two thousand,
(02:15):
six hundred years, and the famous blue Chinese porcelain from
the Tang and Ming dynasties were also glazed with cobalt
based minerals. Pure cobalt is a shiny gray color, but
it can be transformed into a bright blue powder by
taking certain cobalt oxides that is, compounds of cobalt plus
oxygen and treating them with a process called calcination, in
(02:38):
which they're exposed to temperatures in excess of two thousand
and twelve degrees fahrenheit, which is one thousand, one hundred
degrees celsius. The striking color known as cobalt blue, is
made by heating cobalt oxide with aluminum silicates at two thousand,
one hundred and ninety two degrees fahrenheit that's one thousand,
two hundred degrees celsius. A host of other hues mazzarine blue,
(02:59):
willow blue, blue black, can be made by combining cobalt
oxides with other minerals. Small amounts of blue cobalt hues
are also used as a d colorizer to cancel out
yellowish hints in glass from iron contamination. Cobalt was almost
exclusively used as an ingredient in pigments and paints up
until the twentieth century. In nineteen sixteen, more than seventy
(03:21):
of all cobalt mined and refined in the world, which
was only four forty tons by the way, was used
as oxides for colorings. Today, half the world's cobalt is
used for rechargeable batteries. The rechargeable lithium ion batteries in
your smartphone, tablet, and electric vehicle run at least in
part on cobalt. Cobalt is one of the key ingredients,
(03:43):
along with other metals like lithium, nickel, and manganese, inside
these fast charging, long lasting batteries that power our digital lives.
About fifty of the cobalt produced worldwide is used for
rechargeable batteries. Cobalt is found in the cathode, that is,
the positively charged trode of lithium ion batteries. When a
lithium ion batteries charged, lithium ions flow from the cathode
(04:06):
to the negatively charged anode, where they're stored. When the
batteries discharged, the ions flow back to the cathode and
electrons are released to power the phone or electric motor.
Cobalt has to innate properties that make it ideal for
battery applications, thermal stability and high energy density. Cathodes made
(04:27):
with cobalt won't overheat easily or catch fire, which is
a major safety issue, and they'll also be able to
store and transform more energy. Cobalt is not only found
in the cathodes of lithium ion batteries, but also in
other popular rechargeable batteries like nickel cadmium and nickel metal
hydride batteries. Since cobalt currently makes up between ten and
(04:47):
thirty three percent of rechargeable cathodes, the automobile industry is
going to need a lot more cobalt to power the
future of electric vehicles. One analysis predicts the cobalt demand
from passenger vehicles alone quadruple from more than twenty seven thousand,
five hundred tons in to over one and ten thousand
tons by and Furthermore, when aerospace engineers need a material
(05:11):
that can withstand the intense heat inside a jet or
rocket engine, they turn to super alloys made with cobalt.
Super alloys are high performance metals that earn their flashy
name from extremely high resistance to wear and heat. Nickel
based super alloys outperform cobalt alloys for stress resistance for
temperatures reaching up to one thousand, seven hundred and six
(05:32):
degrees fahrenheit that's thy degrees celsius. Beyond that extreme temperature, though,
cobalt based super alloys really show their stuff. Cobalt has
a higher melting point than nickel, and cobalt super alloys
are more resistant to heat corrosion. That's why you'll find
cobalt super alloys in the stationary fins of gas turbine engines,
which take the brunt of the intense heat generated by
(05:54):
jet engines without wearing down and failing. But one of
the main reasons cobalt landed on the U S Department
of Interiors list of Critical Minerals for National Security is
that half of the world's cobalt is mined in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, or the d r C. As
a report from the U S Geological Survey explains, the
d r C has a poor history of government corruption,
(06:16):
human rights violations, and environmental damage. Related to cobalt mining,
and it's not only human rights groups like Amnesty International
that are concerned with unsafe and unethical labor practices related
to unregulated cobalt mining in the d r C. The
political and environmental instability of the d r C means
that a huge chunk of the cobalt supply chain is
vulnerable to disruption. If the high tech economy relies on
(06:40):
a steady supply of cobalt, largely to be used in
rechargeable batteries, then troubles in the d r C could
slow economic growth worldwide. The U S Geological Survey report
also notes that China is the main refiner of cobalt
and one of the biggest financial backers of large cobalt
mining operations in the d r C. As it stands,
the u US tech sector is hugely dependent on an
(07:02):
unstable source in DRC and a contentious trade partner in
China for its cobalt supply, which accounts for the fact
that the US is getting into cobalt mining. According to
figures from the United States consumed ten percent of the
world's cobalt while producing less than one percent of the
global cobalt supply. Cobalt isn't everywhere, but it also isn't
(07:22):
a particularly rare mineral. It ranks thirty second in abundance
in the Earth's crust. Only two mines in Canada and
Morocco can extract pure cobalt ore, while the majority is
extracted as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining. One
of the world's richest cobalt deposits is in the Central
African copper Belt in the DRC. The United States is
(07:42):
not blessed with a lot of high grade cobalt deposits,
which makes it trickier to mine profitably. The mining industry
also has complained of a slow permitting process to allow
for mineral exploration, both on shore and offshore. The Trump
administration has directed the Department of Interior to speed up
the permitting process in an effort to decrease America's reliance
on foreign sources of critical minerals like cobalt. Despite permitting
(08:07):
and geological obstacles, there has been some progress in US
cobalt mining. In the Eagle Mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
began mining nickel and copper, with cobalt and other minerals
as a byproduct. And America's first mind dedicated to cobalt
is getting ready to go into production in in Idaho.
Oh And one more fact. Cobalt is an essential micronutrient
(08:30):
in animal and human diets. Ruminants like cows transformed cobalt
into cobal amen, also known as vitamin B twelve. The
food with the highest concentration of cobalt is chocolate. Today's
episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang.
Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
(08:52):
Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other
multi purpose topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
dot com and from our podcast. From my heart Radio,
visit i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren boble Bomb here coming in at number twenty seven
on your periodic table. Is cobalt, an essential element in
rechargeable batteries and jet engines. In The U. S. Department
of Interior issued a list of thirty five critical minerals
(00:22):
that the U. S economy can't live without, including cobalt.
Cobalt is even considered a national security risk because most
of it is mined in a politically unstable region of
Africa and refined in China. Let's learn more about this
versatile metal, first prized for its ability to create vivid
blue pottery, and now the key to the future of
electric cars. We'll start off with a bit of folklore.
(00:46):
Cobalt got its name from Gnomes. Centuries ago, miners in
the Schnee Barrack Mountains of modern day Germany ran into
a problem. They carved into the mountain side in search
of metal rich ore, specifically silver and nickel, but when
they tried to smelt the ore into its valuable metal components,
some impurity kept spoiling the process. Being the Middle Ages,
(01:07):
the miners blamed their smelting issues on troublesome co Belts
or Copolds, a medieval German word for gnome or goblin.
According to legend, the Copolds lived in the Schneeberg mines
and liked to prank humans by replacing the silver and
nickel in their ore with a foul mineral that released
poisonous fumes during the smelting process. They were also blamed
for Caven's. As with all good ancient legends, the gnome
(01:31):
story had a grain of truth to it. The silver
and nickel smelting process was complicated by high levels of
naturally occurring cobalt in the Schneberg rock, and a related
mineral called cobalite contains arsenic and sulfur, which could be
deadly if released in an air tight mind shaft. Cobalt
as its own element was first isolated and named in
seventeen thirty five by the Swedish chemist Giore Brandt, an
(01:55):
early critic of alchemy and probably not a fan of
gnomes either. Although cobalt didn't get its name until the
eighteenth century, Cobalt based pigments and dyes have been prized
for their rich blue hue for millennia. The Cobalt Institute
says that pottery and glass containing cobalt based glazes has
been recovered from Egyptian tombs dating back at least two thousand,
(02:15):
six hundred years, and the famous blue Chinese porcelain from
the Tang and Ming dynasties were also glazed with cobalt
based minerals. Pure cobalt is a shiny gray color, but
it can be transformed into a bright blue powder by
taking certain cobalt oxides that is, compounds of cobalt plus
oxygen and treating them with a process called calcination, in
(02:38):
which they're exposed to temperatures in excess of two thousand
and twelve degrees fahrenheit, which is one thousand, one hundred
degrees celsius. The striking color known as cobalt blue, is
made by heating cobalt oxide with aluminum silicates at two thousand,
one hundred and ninety two degrees fahrenheit that's one thousand,
two hundred degrees celsius. A host of other hues mazzarine blue,
(02:59):
willow blue, blue black, can be made by combining cobalt
oxides with other minerals. Small amounts of blue cobalt hues
are also used as a d colorizer to cancel out
yellowish hints in glass from iron contamination. Cobalt was almost
exclusively used as an ingredient in pigments and paints up
until the twentieth century. In nineteen sixteen, more than seventy
(03:21):
of all cobalt mined and refined in the world, which
was only four forty tons by the way, was used
as oxides for colorings. Today, half the world's cobalt is
used for rechargeable batteries. The rechargeable lithium ion batteries in
your smartphone, tablet, and electric vehicle run at least in
part on cobalt. Cobalt is one of the key ingredients,
(03:43):
along with other metals like lithium, nickel, and manganese, inside
these fast charging, long lasting batteries that power our digital lives.
About fifty of the cobalt produced worldwide is used for
rechargeable batteries. Cobalt is found in the cathode, that is,
the positively charged trode of lithium ion batteries. When a
lithium ion batteries charged, lithium ions flow from the cathode
(04:06):
to the negatively charged anode, where they're stored. When the
batteries discharged, the ions flow back to the cathode and
electrons are released to power the phone or electric motor.
Cobalt has to innate properties that make it ideal for
battery applications, thermal stability and high energy density. Cathodes made
(04:27):
with cobalt won't overheat easily or catch fire, which is
a major safety issue, and they'll also be able to
store and transform more energy. Cobalt is not only found
in the cathodes of lithium ion batteries, but also in
other popular rechargeable batteries like nickel cadmium and nickel metal
hydride batteries. Since cobalt currently makes up between ten and
(04:47):
thirty three percent of rechargeable cathodes, the automobile industry is
going to need a lot more cobalt to power the
future of electric vehicles. One analysis predicts the cobalt demand
from passenger vehicles alone quadruple from more than twenty seven thousand,
five hundred tons in to over one and ten thousand
tons by and Furthermore, when aerospace engineers need a material
(05:11):
that can withstand the intense heat inside a jet or
rocket engine, they turn to super alloys made with cobalt.
Super alloys are high performance metals that earn their flashy
name from extremely high resistance to wear and heat. Nickel
based super alloys outperform cobalt alloys for stress resistance for
temperatures reaching up to one thousand, seven hundred and six
(05:32):
degrees fahrenheit that's thy degrees celsius. Beyond that extreme temperature, though,
cobalt based super alloys really show their stuff. Cobalt has
a higher melting point than nickel, and cobalt super alloys
are more resistant to heat corrosion. That's why you'll find
cobalt super alloys in the stationary fins of gas turbine engines,
which take the brunt of the intense heat generated by
(05:54):
jet engines without wearing down and failing. But one of
the main reasons cobalt landed on the U S Department
of Interiors list of Critical Minerals for National Security is
that half of the world's cobalt is mined in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, or the d r C. As
a report from the U S Geological Survey explains, the
d r C has a poor history of government corruption,
(06:16):
human rights violations, and environmental damage. Related to cobalt mining,
and it's not only human rights groups like Amnesty International
that are concerned with unsafe and unethical labor practices related
to unregulated cobalt mining in the d r C. The
political and environmental instability of the d r C means
that a huge chunk of the cobalt supply chain is
vulnerable to disruption. If the high tech economy relies on
(06:40):
a steady supply of cobalt, largely to be used in
rechargeable batteries, then troubles in the d r C could
slow economic growth worldwide. The U S Geological Survey report
also notes that China is the main refiner of cobalt
and one of the biggest financial backers of large cobalt
mining operations in the d r C. As it stands,
the u US tech sector is hugely dependent on an
(07:02):
unstable source in DRC and a contentious trade partner in
China for its cobalt supply, which accounts for the fact
that the US is getting into cobalt mining. According to
figures from the United States consumed ten percent of the
world's cobalt while producing less than one percent of the
global cobalt supply. Cobalt isn't everywhere, but it also isn't
(07:22):
a particularly rare mineral. It ranks thirty second in abundance
in the Earth's crust. Only two mines in Canada and
Morocco can extract pure cobalt ore, while the majority is
extracted as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining. One
of the world's richest cobalt deposits is in the Central
African copper Belt in the DRC. The United States is
(07:42):
not blessed with a lot of high grade cobalt deposits,
which makes it trickier to mine profitably. The mining industry
also has complained of a slow permitting process to allow
for mineral exploration, both on shore and offshore. The Trump
administration has directed the Department of Interior to speed up
the permitting process in an effort to decrease America's reliance
on foreign sources of critical minerals like cobalt. Despite permitting
(08:07):
and geological obstacles, there has been some progress in US
cobalt mining. In the Eagle Mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
began mining nickel and copper, with cobalt and other minerals
as a byproduct. And America's first mind dedicated to cobalt
is getting ready to go into production in in Idaho.
Oh And one more fact. Cobalt is an essential micronutrient
(08:30):
in animal and human diets. Ruminants like cows transformed cobalt
into cobal amen, also known as vitamin B twelve. The
food with the highest concentration of cobalt is chocolate. Today's
episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang.
Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
(08:52):
Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other
multi purpose topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
dot com and from our podcast. From my heart Radio,
visit i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H
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