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Tellurium

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geochemistry

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

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FormalPara Element Data

Atomic Symbol: Te

Atomic Number: 52

Atomic Weight: 127.60

Isotopes and Abundances: 120Te 0.09%, 122Te 2.55%, 123Te 0.89%, 124Te 4.74%, 125Te 7.07%, 126Te 18.84%, 128Te 31.74%, 130Te 34.08%

1 Atm Melting Point: 450 °C

1 Atm Boiling Point: 990 °C

Common Valences: 2−, 4+, 6+, 0

Ionic Radii: sixfold Te2− 221 pm, Te4+ 97 pm, Te6+ 56 pm; covalent: 137 pm

Pauling Electronegativity: 2.1

First Ionization Energy: 869.3 kJ

Chondritic (CI) Abundance: 2.28 ppma

Silicate Earth Abundance: 9 ppba

Crustal Abundance: 5 ppbb

Seawater Abundance: ~2 ng/L

Core Abundance: 0.85 ppmc

aPalme and O’Neill (2014)

bWedepohl (1995)

cMcDonough (2014)

Properties

Tellurium (Te) is one of the chalcophile elements that belong to group 16 in the periodic table and has an electronic configuration of [Kr]4d105s25p4. There are eight stable isotopes from 120Te to 130Te. It is expected that 126Te is enriched relative to other isotopes because of the decay of the short-lived nuclide tin 126 (half-life:...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshio Takahashi

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  1. Yoshio Takahashi
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Correspondence to Yoshio Takahashi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Cornell University Department of Earth, Ithaca, New York, USA

    William M. White

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Takahashi, Y. (2017). Tellurium. In: White, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_288-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_288-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39193-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39193-9

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