What was tin used for

The most important tin salt used is tin II chloride which is used as a reducing agent and as a mordant. Tin salts sprayed onto glass are used to produce electrically conductive coatings.

Most window glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin to produce a flat surface. Recently, a tin-niobium alloy that is superconductive at very low temperatures has attracted interest. The more important tin compound is the tin dioxide SnO 2 , used in electric resistors and dielectrics, and the tin monoxide that it is used in the production of tin salts for electroplating and as chemical reagents.

The tin compounds that contain lead, barium, calcium and copper are indispensable in the production of electric capacitors. The tin fluoride is used as addictive in toothpastes. Brief Timeline. The natives of Iran made articles from bronze, which is an alloy of tin and copper.

The earliest uses of tin were in Turkey. It was first mined and refined in Turkey. When tin undergoes mining, it becomes a silvery metal that is used for the resistance to corrosion.

The Sumerians had recognized that if different ores were blended together in the smelting process different type of copper would flow easily. Tin's heyday ended in the mid th century, however, when Coors Brewery introduced the first aluminum can. Cheaper, lighter and recyclable, aluminum rapidly overtook tin and steel. But tin still has its uses. Tin plus the element niobium makes a superconductive metal used for wire.

Copper and other metals are mixed with tin to make pewter, which was once a common metal for tableware. And window glass gets its silky smooth surface from a mold of molten tin, a method called the Pilkington process. Recently, tech researchers have gotten excited about graphene , a single-atom layer of carbon that is both harder than diamonds and stretchable like rubber.

It's entirely possible that the next high-tech advance like graphene will come from humble tin. Stanene is special because it is the first material able to conduct electricity with percent efficiency at room temperature. The addition of a few fluorine atoms maintains this efficiency up to and beyond the temperatures at which computer chips operate — up to about F C. Xu and his team, including physicist Shoucheng Zhang at Stanford, knew they needed a heavy element with the properties of a so-called "topological insulator.

Tin hadn't been studied for this purpose before. But Xu and his colleagues found that when tin atoms are arranged in a single, honeycomb layer, the elements' properties change. It becomes a perfect conductor of electricity at room temperature, with not a single stray electron lost, the researchers reported in November Electronics made with stanene should thus produce less heat and draw less power than their silicon counterparts.

Tin sheets are used in a variety of industries, including the aerospace, construction and home decor, electronics, jewelry manufacturing and telecommunications. Tin sheets are made from tin and other alloying metals, like lead, copper, nickel and zinc, depending on the desired characteristic needed for the sheet metal. Tin if often preferred by these industries because it is corrosion resistant, available in several colors and finishes and cost-effective when compared to other types of metals, like gold, silver, copper and platinum.

Tin is also preferred because it is easy to cut and form around objects. Tin is often used in exterior and interior home decor for its aesthetic value, durability and resistance to corrosion. In luxury homes, tin sheets are often stamped and formed into custom tin tiles that are then used to create custom walls and ceilings for a completely unique interior look and feel.

The tin sheet may also be available in several colors, depending on the composition of the sheet metal. Common colors include gray or silver, red or copper colored or even gold colored.

Tin sheets can be used as custom countertops in residential kitchens and bathrooms and in industrial settings where corrosion resistance and durability are needed for workspaces, break rooms and dining areas.