Vanadium (V) is a silvery-white, soft, and ductile chemical element belonging to Group 5 of the periodic table. It is found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum and is the 22nd most abundant element in Earth’s crust. Vanadium is primarily used as an alloying element in steels and cast iron to enhance ductility and shock resistance. It is also a strengthener in titanium alloys , which are used in jet aircraft. Vanadium compounds act as catalysts in manufacturing sulfuric acid, nylon, and other organic substances. The Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefstr\u00f6m rediscovered vanadium in 1830 and named it after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty, inspired by the beautiful colors of its compounds in solution.

Where is vanadium found in nature?

Vanadium, a silvery-white metal, is never found in its pure form in nature. It is the 22nd most abundant element in the Earth's crust and is found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum. Some commercial sources of vanadium are the minerals carnotite [K2(UO2)2(VO4)2], vanadinite [Pb5(VO4)3Cl], and roscoelite. Vanadium is also sourced from vanadium-bearing magnetite and flue dust from smokestacks and boilers of ships burning certain Venezuelan and Mexican oils. The world’s largest mines of vanadium are from titaniferous magnetite reserves in regions such as the Bushveld of South Africa, the Kachkanar Massif of the Ural Mountains, and China’s Szechwan province.

What are some common uses of vanadium?

Vanadium is a silvery-white, soft metal used principally as an alloying addition to high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, tool steels, and iron and steel castings. It is also an important strengthener for titanium alloys , which are used in the undercarriages, wings, and engines of jet aircraft. Vanadium compounds, such as vanadium pentoxide and vanadates, act as catalysts in manufacturing sulfuric acid, polyamides like nylon, and in oxidizing organic substances. Vanadium alloys also show promise as structural materials for fusion and liquid-metal fast-breeder fission reactors because of their good corrosion resistance to liquid metal, low neutron absorption, and short half-life in radioactive isotopic forms.

What are the physical properties of vanadium?

Vanadium (V) is a silvery-white, soft, and ductile metal with atomic number 23 and atomic weight 50.942. It has a body-centred cubic (bcc) lattice crystal structure and a melting point of 1,890 °C (3,434 °F). In its pure form, vanadium is soft and can be made into various shapes, but it readily oxidizes at temperatures above 663° C (1,225° F). Vanadium is corrosion resistant to liquid metal, has low neutron absorption, and a short half-life in its radioactive isotopic forms. Key properties: * Appearance Silvery-white metal * Oxidation states +2, +3, +4, +5 * Specific gravity 5.96 at 20 °C (68 °F) * Melting point 1,890 °C (3,434 °F) * Boiling point 3,380 °C (6,116 °F)

Why is vanadium important in making steel alloys?

Vanadium is a silvery-white, soft metal primarily used as an alloying addition to high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, tool steels, and iron and steel castings. Adding vanadium refines the grain of the steel matrix and forms carbides with the carbon present, resulting in steel that is especially strong and hard, with improved shock resistance. The addition of small amounts of vanadium (less than 0.2 percent) to structural steels improves their toughness, ductility, and strength. Almost all tool steels contain vanadium in amounts ranging from 0.10 to 5 percent to ensure the retention of hardness and cutting ability at high temperatures. In some cast irons, a small amount of vanadium controls the size and distribution of graphite flakes, improving strength and wear resistance.

How is vanadium extracted and processed for industrial use?

Vanadium extraction involves smelting, leaching, and roasting ores to produce vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅). One method reduces titaniferous magnetite ore with coal, yielding slag and pig iron containing vanadium. The pig iron is then oxygen-blown to form a new slag with 12–24% vanadium pentoxide. Another process leaches carnotite ore concentrate with hot sulfuric acid and an oxidant. After solid removal, the leachate undergoes solvent extraction to isolate uranium, leaving vanadium in the raffinate. This vanadium is then extracted, stripped with soda ash, and precipitated with ammonium sulfate, which is filtered, dried, and calcined to V₂O₅. Most vanadium-bearing ores are mixed with a sodium salt and roasted to convert oxides to sodium metavanadate, leachable in hot water. Acidulation with sulfuric acid precipitates vanadium as sodium hexavanadate, or red cake, which is then fused to create technical-grade vanadium pentoxide.

vanadium

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Diagram of vanadium's chemical properties from the periodic table, showing atomic number 23, atomic weight 50.9415, symbol V, electron configuration, and labels for structure, state, and classification as a transition metal.

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Key People:: Henry Enfield Roscoe

Related Topics:: chemical element; transition metal; vanadium processing; vanadium-50; vanadium alloy

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vanadium

chemical element

Also known as: V, erythronium

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Top Questions

What is vanadium?
Vanadium (V) is a silvery-white, soft, and ductile chemical element belonging to Group 5 of the periodic table. It is found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum and is the 22nd most abundant element in Earth’s crust.

Vanadium is primarily used as an alloying element in steels and cast iron to enhance ductility and shock resistance. It is also a strengthener in titanium alloys, which are used in jet aircraft. Vanadium compounds act as catalysts in manufacturing sulfuric acid, nylon, and other organic substances.

The Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefstr\u00f6m rediscovered vanadium in 1830 and named it after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty, inspired by the beautiful colors of its compounds in solution.
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Where is vanadium found in nature?
Vanadium, a silvery-white metal, is never found in its pure form in nature. It is the 22nd most abundant element in the Earth's crust and is found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum.

Some commercial sources of vanadium are the minerals carnotite [K2(UO2)2(VO4)2], vanadinite [Pb5(VO4)3Cl], and roscoelite. Vanadium is also sourced from vanadium-bearing magnetite and flue dust from smokestacks and boilers of ships burning certain Venezuelan and Mexican oils. The world’s largest mines of vanadium are from titaniferous magnetite reserves in regions such as the Bushveld of South Africa, the Kachkanar Massif of the Ural Mountains, and China’s Szechwan province.
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What are some common uses of vanadium?
Vanadium is a silvery-white, soft metal used principally as an alloying addition to high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, tool steels, and iron and steel castings. It is also an important strengthener for titanium alloys, which are used in the undercarriages, wings, and engines of jet aircraft.

Vanadium compounds, such as vanadium pentoxide and vanadates, act as catalysts in manufacturing sulfuric acid, polyamides like nylon, and in oxidizing organic substances. Vanadium alloys also show promise as structural materials for fusion and liquid-metal fast-breeder fission reactors because of their good corrosion resistance to liquid metal, low neutron absorption, and short half-life in radioactive isotopic forms.
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1. vanadium processing
2. vanadium
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What are the physical properties of vanadium?
Vanadium (V) is a silvery-white, soft, and ductile metal with atomic number 23 and atomic weight 50.942. It has a body-centred cubic (bcc) lattice crystal structure and a melting point of 1,890 °C (3,434 °F).

In its pure form, vanadium is soft and can be made into various shapes, but it readily oxidizes at temperatures above 663° C (1,225° F). Vanadium is corrosion resistant to liquid metal, has low neutron absorption, and a short half-life in its radioactive isotopic forms.

Key properties:
* Appearance Silvery-white metal
* Oxidation states +2, +3, +4, +5
* Specific gravity 5.96 at 20 °C (68 °F)
* Melting point 1,890 °C (3,434 °F)
* Boiling point 3,380 °C (6,116 °F)
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1. vanadium processing
2. vanadium
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Why is vanadium important in making steel alloys?
Vanadium is a silvery-white, soft metal primarily used as an alloying addition to high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, tool steels, and iron and steel castings. Adding vanadium refines the grain of the steel matrix and forms carbides with the carbon present, resulting in steel that is especially strong and hard, with improved shock resistance.

The addition of small amounts of vanadium (less than 0.2 percent) to structural steels improves their toughness, ductility, and strength. Almost all tool steels contain vanadium in amounts ranging from 0.10 to 5 percent to ensure the retention of hardness and cutting ability at high temperatures. In some cast irons, a small amount of vanadium controls the size and distribution of graphite flakes, improving strength and wear resistance.
2 Britannica Sources
1. vanadium processing
2. vanadium
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How is vanadium extracted and processed for industrial use?
Vanadium extraction involves smelting, leaching, and roasting ores to produce vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅). One method reduces titaniferous magnetite ore with coal, yielding slag and pig iron containing vanadium. The pig iron is then oxygen-blown to form a new slag with 12–24% vanadium pentoxide.

Another process leaches carnotite ore concentrate with hot sulfuric acid and an oxidant. After solid removal, the leachate undergoes solvent extraction to isolate uranium, leaving vanadium in the raffinate. This vanadium is then extracted, stripped with soda ash, and precipitated with ammonium sulfate, which is filtered, dried, and calcined to V₂O₅.

Most vanadium-bearing ores are mixed with a sodium salt and roasted to convert oxides to sodium metavanadate, leachable in hot water. Acidulation with sulfuric acid precipitates vanadium as sodium hexavanadate, or red cake, which is then fused to create technical-grade vanadium pentoxide.
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1. vanadium processing: Vanadium pentoxide
2. vanadium
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vanadium (V), chemical element, silvery white soft metal of Group 5 (Vb) of the periodic table. It is alloyed with steel and iron for high-speed tool steel, high-strength low-alloy steel, and wear-resistant cast iron.

Vanadium was discovered (1801) by the Spanish mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río, who named it erythronium but eventually came to believe it was merely impure chromium. The element was rediscovered (1830) by the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström, who named it after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and youth, a name suggested by the beautiful colours of vanadium’s compounds in solution. The English chemist Henry Enfield Roscoe first isolated the metal in 1867 by hydrogen reduction of vanadium dichloride, VCl₂, and the American chemists John Wesley Marden and Malcolm N. Rich obtained it 99.7 percent pure in 1925 by reduction of vanadium pentoxide, V₂O₅, with calcium metal.

Found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum, vanadium is the 22nd most abundant element in Earth’s crust. Some commercial sources are the minerals carnotite, vanadinite, and roscoelite. (Deposits of the important vanadium-bearing mineral patronite occurring in coal at Mina Ragra, Peru, have been materially depleted.) Other commercial sources are vanadium-bearing magnetite and flue dust from smokestacks and boilers of ships burning certain Venezuelan and Mexican oils. China, South Africa, and Russia were the leading producers of vanadium in the early 21st century.

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Vanadium is obtained from ores as vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) through a variety of smelting, leaching, and roasting processes. The pentoxide is then reduced to ferrovanadium or vanadium powder. The preparation of very pure vanadium is difficult because the metal is quite reactive toward oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon at elevated temperatures.

Vanadium metal, sheet, strip, foil, bar, wire, and tubing have found use in high-temperature service, in the chemical industry, and in bonding other metals. Because the major commercial use of vanadium is in steel and cast iron, to which it lends ductility and shock resistance, most of the vanadium produced is used with iron as ferrovanadium (about 85 percent vanadium) in making vanadium steels. Vanadium (added in amounts between 0.1 and 5.0 percent) has two effects upon steel: it refines the grain of the steel matrix, and with the carbon present it forms carbides. Thus, vanadium steel is especially strong and hard, with improved resistance to shock. When the very pure metal is required, it may be obtained by processes similar to those for titanium. Very pure vanadium metal resembles titanium in being quite corrosion resistant, hard, and steel gray in color.

Vanadium compounds (pentoxide and certain vanadates) are used as catalysts in the contact process for manufacturing sulfuric acid; as oxidation catalysts in the syntheses of phthalic and maleic anhydrides; in the manufacture of polyamides such as nylon; and in the oxidation of such organic substances as ethanol to acetaldehyde, sugar to oxalic acid, and anthracene to anthraquinone.

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Natural vanadium consists of two isotopes: stable vanadium-51 (99.76 percent) and weakly radioactive vanadium-50 (0.24 percent). Nine artificial radioactive isotopes have been produced. Vanadium dissolves in concentrated sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and aqua regia. In the massive state it is not attacked by air, water, alkalies, or nonoxidizing acids other than hydrofluoric acid. It does not tarnish in air readily but when heated combines with nearly all nonmetals. For vanadium the important oxidation states are +2, +3, +4, and +5. The oxides corresponding to the four oxidation states are VO, V₂O₃, VO₂, and V₂O₅. The hydrogen-oxygen compounds of vanadium in the two lower oxidation states are basic; in the two higher, amphoteric (both acidic and basic). In aqueous solution the ions exhibit different colours depending on the oxidation state—lavender in the +2 state, green in the +3 state, blue in the +4 state, and yellow in the +5 state.

Element Properties
atomic number	23
atomic weight	50.942
melting point	1,890 °C (3,434 °F)
boiling point	3,380 °C (6,116 °F)
specific gravity	5.96 at 20 °C (68 °F)
oxidation states	+2, +3, +4, +5
electron configuration	[Ar]3d³4s²

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

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