tungsten

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

Description

Pure tungsten is a steel-gray to tin-white metal. Tungsten has the highest melting point and lowest vapour pressure of all metals, and at temperatures over 1650°C has the highest tensile strength. The metal oxidises in air and must be protected at elevated temperatures. It has excellent corrosion resistance and is attacked only slightly by most mineral acids.

General information

Discoveror: Fausto and Juan José de Elhuyar
Date discovered: 1783
Discovered at: Spain
Meaning of name: From the Swedish words "tung sten" meaning "heavy stone" (the origin of the symbol W is "wolfram ", named after the tungsten mineral wolframite)

Physical data

Standard state: solid at 298 K
Colour: greyish white, lustrous
Density of solid at ambient temperature/kg m^-3: 19250
Molar volume/cm³: 9.47

Radii /pm

Atomic: 193
Covalent (single bond):
Pauling radius for the ion [W]^-: no data

Valence shell orbital radius maxima (R_max)

orbital	s	p	d	f
radius	165.0	no data	77.6	22.5

Electronegativities

Both values are quoted on the Pauling scale.

Pauling: 2.36
Allred Rochow: 1.40

Crystal Structure

structure: bcc (body-centred cubic)

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: 3695
boiling point: 5828

Enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

fusion: 35.0
vaporization: 807

single bond enthalpies:

W-F	W-Cl	W-Br	W-I	W-W
no data	no data	no data	no data	no data

Ionization enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

Number	Enthalpy
1st	770

Isotopes

This section gives some data for naturally occurring isotopes.

Nominal mass	Accurate mass	% natural abundance
180W	179.946701 (5)	0.13 (4)
182W	181.948202 (3)	26.3 (2)
183W	182.950220 (3)	14.3 (1)
184W	183.950928 (3)	30.67 (15)
186W	185.954357 (4)	28.6 (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