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Cadmium

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Encyclopedia of Geochemistry

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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FormalPara Element Data

Atomic Symbol: Cd

Atomic Number: 48

Atomic Weight: 112.411

Isotopes and Abundances: 106Cd 1.25 %, 108Cd 0.89 %, 110Cd 12.51 %, 111Cd 12.81 %, 112Cd 24.13 %, 113Cd 12.22 %, 114Cd 28.72 %, 116Cd 7.47 %

1 Atm Melting Point: 594.1 K

1 Atm Boiling Point: 1038 K

Common Valences: +2, +1

Ionic Radii: (+II) 103 ppm, (+I) 114 ppm

Pauling Electronegativity: 1.69

First Ionization Energy: 867.8 kJ/mol

Chondritic (CI) Abundance: 686 ppb

Silicate Earth Abundance: 0.04 ppm

Crustal Abundance: 0.11 ppm

Seawater Abundance: 0.11 ppb

Core Abundance: 0.15 ppm

Properties

Cadmium (Emsley 1991, 2001; Anthoni 2006; Anders and Grevesse 1989; McDonough 2005) is a lustrous, silvery-white metal with a bluish tinge on the surface and tarnishes in air. It is very ductile and malleable and is soft enough to be cut with a knife. Cadmium is soluble in acids but not in alkaline solutions. In many ways, cadmium is similar to zinc but forms more complex compounds.

Cadmium was not considered to be...

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Correspondence to Monica Vasiliu or David A. Dixon .

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Vasiliu, M., Dixon, D.A. (2016). Cadmium. In: White, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_27-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_27-1

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