Vanadium: Goddess of Beauty
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Atomic number: 23 Atomic weight: 50.9415 amu Classification: Transition Metal
Vanadium is named after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and love. It’s quite the flattering name. You can tell that someone had a real bias for vanadium. The reason vanadium has such a name is that its ions have a range of brilliant colors. Different solutions of vanadium can be yellow, blue, green, and purple.
Vanadium compounds are also used as catalysts (substances that are used to speed up chemical reactions), especially in the contact process. The contact process is a very important industrial reaction that is used to create sulphuric acid.
The most common use of vanadium is vanadium-steel alloys (80% of all vanadium produced is used here), which are used to create parts of cars, armor plates, and various tools.