indium

• Description
• General information
• Physical data
• Radii
• Electronegativities
• Solid state structure
• Temperatures
• Enthalpies
• Ionization Enthalpies
• Isotopes
• Further information

Description

Indium is a very soft, silvery-white metal with a brilliant lustre. The pure metal gives a high-pitched "scream" when bent. It wets glass, as does gallium. It is useful for making low-melting alloys. An alloy of 24% indium and 76% gallium is liquid at room temperature. Canada produces the majority of of the world's supply of indium.

General information

Discoveror: Ferdinand Reich, Hieronymus Theodor Richter
Date discovered: 1863
Discovered at: Germany
Meaning of name: Named after the indigo line in its atomic spectrum

Physical data

Standard state: solid at 298 K
Colour: silvery lustrous grey
Density of solid at ambient temperature/kg m^-3: 7310
Molar volume/cm³: 15.76

Radii /pm

Atomic: 156
Covalent (single bond):
Pauling radius for the ion [In]^-: no data

Valence shell orbital radius maxima (R_max)

orbital	s	p	d	f
radius	123.4	158.4	49.1	no data

Electronegativities

Both values are quoted on the Pauling scale.

Pauling: 1.78
Allred Rochow: 1.49

Crystal Structure

structure: tetragonal

The following CrystalMaker image represents the solid state structure. For most elements, the most stable allotrope is illustrated. Try WebElements version 2 for interactive virtual reality and CHIME images.

Temperatures (/K)

melting point: 429.75
boiling point: 2345

Enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

fusion: 3.26
vaporization: 229

single bond enthalpies:

In-F	In-Cl	In-Br	In-I	In-In
444	328	279	225	100

Ionization enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

Number	Enthalpy
1st	558.3
2nd	1820.6
3rd	2705
4th	5200

Isotopes

This section gives some data for naturally occurring isotopes.

Nominal mass	Accurate mass	% natural abundance
113In	112.904061 (4)	4.3 (2)
115In	114.903882 (4)	95.7 (2)

Further Information

• Additional information about WebElements 1.2.2
• This is a licensed copy (here is the full list) of WebElements 1.2.2 and contains a subset of the material contained within the main version of WebElements (version 2)
• For further information please try WebElements version 2
• Sheffield Chemdex: perhaps the largest internet chemistry directory
• Sheffield Chemputer: interactive chemistry calculators on the WWW