Niobium is mainly used in the following fields:
1. Iron and Steel industry:
-Improve steel performance: About 85% -90% of the worlds niobium is used in steel production in the form of iron niobium. Add a small amount of niobium (generally 0.03% -0.05%) to the steel, and the yield strength of the steel can be increased by more than 30%. Niobium can also refine grains, improving the strength of steel while maintaining good toughness and plasticity. For example, high-strength, low-alloy steel containing niobium is used to build oil transmission (gas) pipelines, construction steel, etc.
-Improve high temperature performance: adding niobium can improve the high temperature oxidation resistance of steel, which can be used to cast stainless steel and heat-resistant steel.
-Production of special steel: adding 0.02% niobium and titanium to steel can produce gap-less steel for automobile manufacturing, etc. Microniobium carbon steel can be processed into various profiles, such as castings, forgings, rolls, plates, wires, pipes, strips, bars, etc.
2. Superconducting materials industry:
-Manufacturing superconductors: Some compounds and alloys of niobium have high superconducting transition temperature, so they are widely used in manufacturing a variety of industrial superconductors, such as superconducting generators, accelerator high-power magnets, superconducting magnetic energy storage devices, etc.
-Medical diagnostic equipment: submillimeter wave direct detector based on niobium superconducting tunnel junction has wide band response and high sensitivity. Niobium-titanium and niobium-tin are widely used in magnetic resonance imaging instrument for medical diagnosis and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging instrument for spectral line (analysis).
3. Electronics industry:
-Making Capacitors: niobium and niobium low-price oxide NbO is used to make capacitors, NBO capacitor has high performance, high reliability, low cost and other characteristics.
-Electronic devices: niobium has a high melting point, a strong electron-emitting capacity, and has an inspiratory capacity, which can be used to make electronic tubes and other electric vacuum devices.
4. Aerospace industry:
-Manufacturing parts: Because niobium alloy is a material with small density in refractory metal, and has high strength at 1100-1650℃ and excellent welding performance, good room temperature plasticity, can be made into all kinds of complex shapes of parts, so it is widely used in the manufacture of aero-engine parts, gas turbine blades, etc.
-Thermal protection materials: the preferred thermal protection materials and structural materials on hypersonic aircraft, space vehicles, satellites, missiles and supersonic low-altitude rockets.
5. Medical field: niobium has good the resistance to physical corrosion and biocompatibility, not with various liquid substances in the human body, almost never damage the body tissue, can adapt to any sterilization method, and is often used to make bone plate, skull plate bone screws, implants, root, surgical equipment, etc.
6. Atomic energy industry: niobium has high thermal conductivity, high melting point, good corrosion resistance, and low neutron capture cross section. It is a material suitable for atomic energy reactor. Its main uses include envelope materials of nuclear fuel, alloys of nuclear fuel, and structural materials of heat exchanger in nuclear reactor.
7. Chemical industry: Niobium is a high-quality acid-resistant and liquid metal corrosion-resistant material, which can be used to make boilers, heaters and coolers, etc. In addition, niobate is also an important catalyst.
8. Optical industry: Niobium helps to increase the light transmittance performance of the lens, and can be applied in the manufacturing of lenses in the optical industry. Potassium niobate sodium-based ceramics have excellent transparent performance, fast charge and discharge speed, wide temperature adaptation range, and can be used as transparent energy storage medium materials.
9. Casting industry: The main role of niobium is to form hard carbide (beneficial to wear resistance) and change the morphology and size of graphite sheet, so it is often used in the manufacture of automobile cylinder heads, piston rings and brake pads, etc.
