Element · Te

Tellurium

One of the rarest stable elements in the crust, and a working solar-panel technology.

Tellurium is rarer in the Earth's crust than platinum. The reason is not that the Earth lacks it but that it forms a volatile hydride, and much of the planet's original supply was lost to space during formation.

Cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaics are the main commercial technology competing with silicon, and are cheaper per watt to manufacture. Their constraint is exactly this element's scarcity: tellurium is recovered from the anode slimes of copper refining, and there is only so much copper refining.

Uses

Tellurium's largest single use is cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaics, which is the main commercial alternative to silicon solar panels.

It is also a metallurgical additive: small amounts make steel and copper far easier to machine, letting a cutting tool produce short chips and a clean surface. Bismuth telluride is the standard thermoelectric material, used in portable cooling and in devices that generate small amounts of electricity from a temperature difference. Tellurium is also a rubber vulcanisation accelerator.

Medium confidence Weak evidence

How we know: checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source.

How this connects

Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.

is sourced from

Copper — element · recovered from copper refining anode slimes

is produced by

Electrorefining — process · from the anode slimes; tellurium has no ore body worth mining and no other significant source

is used as

Photovoltaics — application · the other half of cadmium telluride, and the constraint on how far that technology can scale

is found in

Cadmium telluride — compound · the other half, and the technology's real ceiling: tellurium has no ore body and arrives only as a by-product of copper refining Wikidata

Sources

Material World
Our own writing
Wikidata
Wikimedia Foundation · Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication)
PubChem
US National Library of Medicine · Mixed — aggregated third-party content, rights retained by depositors
NIST — National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States Department of Commerce · US Government work — public information, credit requested

Questions this page answers

Where it comes from, and what it becomes

Follow Tellurium back to what it starts as, and forward into what it becomes. Each step is a documented one — a real route material takes, not a chain of inference.

Upstream — what it comes from

Tellurium → is sourced from (recovered from copper refining anode slimes) → Copper → is produced by (as blister copper, refined electrolytically afterwards) → Smelting → takes as input (as the element removed, not added) → Oxygen → is produced by (the largest output by tonnage, and the reason air separation units sit beside steelworks) → Air separation → takes as input (the feedstock, and an unusual one in being free, unlimited and available anywhere — the cost is entirely the energy to liquefy it) → Air
Tellurium → is produced by (from the anode slimes; tellurium has no ore body worth mining and no other significant source) → Electrorefining → takes as input (as impure smelted anodes, around 99% copper, which is not pure enough for wire) → Copper → is produced by (as blister copper, refined electrolytically afterwards) → Smelting → takes as input (as the element removed, not added) → Oxygen → is produced by (the largest output by tonnage, and the reason air separation units sit beside steelworks) → Air separation
Tellurium → is sourced from (recovered from copper refining anode slimes) → Copper → is extracted from (the principal copper ore worldwide) → Chalcopyrite
Tellurium → is sourced from (recovered from copper refining anode slimes) → Copper → is produced by (as blister copper, refined electrolytically afterwards) → Smelting → takes as input (roasted to drive off sulfur, then reduced to copper) → Chalcopyrite
Tellurium → is sourced from (recovered from copper refining anode slimes) → Copper → is produced by (as blister copper, refined electrolytically afterwards) → Smelting → takes as input (reduced with carbon to metallic tin) → Cassiterite
Tellurium → is sourced from (recovered from copper refining anode slimes) → Copper → is produced by (as blister copper, refined electrolytically afterwards) → Smelting → takes as input (reduced with coke in a blast furnace) → Hematite

These are the most distinct paths back. Tellurium can be traced through others besides.

Downstream — what it becomes

Tellurium → is used as (the other half of cadmium telluride, and the constraint on how far that technology can scale) → Photovoltaics