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Cadmium sulfide photoresistor. The s-curve on this sensor is made of cadmium sulfide, a semiconductor that becomes significantly more conductive to electricity when it is exposed to light. The sensor is wired in series with a wire coil wrapped around a bi-metallic strip. In the dark, little current flows through the circuit, and the wire coil remains cold. When exposed to light, the resistance drops, current flow increases, and the wire coil heats up the bi-metallic strip, causing it to bend, which in turn snaps a relay contact to the opposite position. This is a daylight sensor designed to turn an outdoor lamp on at dusk and off at dawn. Source: Farm & Fleet Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 22 April, 2009 Text Updated: 23 April, 2009 Price: $10 Size: 0.5" Purity: <30% |
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Cadmium yellow paint. Classic cadmium yellow (cadmium sulfide pigment) paint. Source: eBay seller charltonmills Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 16 April, 2009 Text Updated: 17 April, 2009 Price: $6 Size: 1" Purity: <30% |
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Cadmium red paint. Cadmium is primarily known for yellow, but other shades also use this pigment. Source: eBay seller charltonmills Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 16 April, 2009 Text Updated: 17 April, 2009 Price: $6 Size: 1" Purity: <30% |
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Cadmium plated brake rotor. I'm not sure what a brake rotor is, but I think it goes on a car. In any case, this is a Summit model SUM-EP-5541L brake rotor, and it's cadmium plated. Source: eBay seller summitracing_sales Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 2 April, 2009 Text Updated: 3 April, 2009 Price: $46 Size: 12" Purity: <1% |
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Cadmium and dichromate plated thumb screws. These thumbscrews are plated first with cadmium and then treated with acidified dichromate salt solutions to convert the surface layer of cadmium metal into insoluble cadmium chromate, which doesn't corrode and produce toxic cadmium oxide dust. Source: eBay seller seismoman Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 28 February, 2009 Text Updated: 16 April, 2009 Price: $1 Size: 1" Purity: <1% |
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Cadmium and dichromate plated castle nuts. These large (3/4") castle nuts are plated first with cadmium and then treated with acidified dichromate salt solutions to convert the surface layer of cadmium metal into insoluble cadmium chromate, which doesn't corrode and produce toxic cadmium oxide dust. Source: eBay seller seismoman Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 28 February, 2009 Text Updated: 16 April, 2009 Price: $1 Size: 1" Purity: <1% |
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Cadmium shielding foil. This is fairly thin cadmium foil said to come from a nuclear research facility and intended for use as radiation shielding. Lead is much more common as a shielding material, but cadmium works better for neutrons, which tells you this came from a serious place, as neutrons are not something you get from common radioactive minerals and the like. Source: Anonymous Contributor: Anonymous Acquired: 24 December, 2007 Text Updated: 8 March, 2008 Price: Donated Size: 5" Purity: 99% |
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Sublimed cadmium. This sample could also be called vacuum distilled cadmium. Sublimation means going directly from a solid to a vapor state, like boiling without going through the liquid state in between. Distillation means the process of evaporating (usually by boiling) a substance and then catching the vapor on a cold surface, where it re-condenses into liquid or solid form. The purpose is usually purification. For example, alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so if you have a fermented mixture of water, yeast, and alcohol, you can separate out the alcohol by heating the liquid to the point where the alcohol evaporates, but the water mostly says put. The alcohol vapor can then be condensed on a cold plate or pipe, and collected in a separate flask. It's somewhat surprising at first to think that the same thing can be done with metal, but really it's just a question of higher temperatures. Any metal will eventually turn into a gas if you make it hot enough, and that means any metal can be distilled. When the collection plate is cold enough that the metal condenses directly into a solid the result is often beautiful vapor-deposited crystals, as you see in this sample. Ivan has kindly provided these pictures of the sublimation apparatus he used to create this sample: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3. He reports the cadmium was heated to 250-260 C and the pressure during sublimation was 0.0005-0.0001 mm Hg. The yellow in the bottom of the bulb is cadmium oxide on the surface of the starting material, and you can see the final product collected on the top inside surface of the bulb. Source: Ivan Timokhin Contributor: Ivan Timokhin Acquired: 28 December, 2006 Text Updated: 11 February, 2007 Price: Donated Size: 3" Purity: >99.99% |
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Rod. This is a rod of cadmium, but I'm not sure where it came from, so I can't say much about it. Cadmium is often sold in smallish rods and bars, I think because one of its main applications is in plating, where it needs to be melted down or dissolved. Source: Unknown Contributor: Unknown Acquired: 20 January, 2007 Text Updated: 21 January, 2007 Price: Unknown Size: 4" Purity: 99% |
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Element coin. Dave Hamric sells element samples under the name Metallium. He's developed a line of coins struck out of various common and uncommon metals: They are quite lovely, and very reasonably priced, considering the difficulty of creating some of them. Here is the back side of this coin (click either picture to see it larger):  Click the Sample Group link below to see many other coins made of various elements, or click the link to his website above if you want to buy one like this. Source: Dave Hamric Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 1 December, 2006 Text Updated: 14 January, 2007 Price: $14 Size: 0.75" Purity: >99% Sample Group: Coins |
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Fish. I cast this fish for the purpose of making a high-resolution 360 rotation image of it (click turntable icon or Spin link to see it). The yellow film covering some of the scales is either a thin layer of cadmium oxide, or possibly cadmium sulfide formed because I have used the same mold to cast sulfur fish before. Cadmium yellow (cadmium sulfide) is a classic painter's pigment so I hope that's what it is. Though toxic, it was widely used, and accounts for some of the bright, vibrant color in paintings of the impressionist period (Monet and all that). The fish shape comes from a cast iron corn bread mold, whose non-stick Teflon coating seems to have no problem with zinc, tin, cadmium, and similar metals with reasonably low melting points. I chose this sample to represent its element in my Photographic Periodic Table Poster. The sample photograph includes text exactly as it appears in the poster, which you are encouraged to buy a copy of.  Source: sulfuric.com Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 11 September, 2005 Text Updated: 16 March, 2009 Price: $1/pound Size: 3" Purity: 99.99% |
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High purity cadmium. When you reach the rarefied levels of purity represented by four or five nines, many metals become smooth, shiny, and crystalline. Generally speaking, the higher the purity, the bigger the crystals (cooling rate also effects crystal size, but as a general rule without high purity you can't get big crystals). This bar was hand made by Heinrich Pniok, owner of probably the finest collection of very high purity elements, and now a supplier to the element hobby. The large crystal facets are very unusual for cadmium, which is normally a dull, grayish metal in is common low-purity form. Source: Heinrich Pniok Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 31 July, 2004 Text Updated: 11 August, 2007 Price: $70 Size: 1.5" Purity: 99.999% |
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Museum-grade sample. In early 2004 Max Whitby and I started selling individual element samples identical or similar to the samples we use in the museum displays we build. These are top-quality samples presented in attractive forms appropriate to the particular element. They are for sale from Max's website and also on eBay where you will find an ever-changing selection of samples (click the link to see the current listings). This cast ball is designed to show what the surface of the metal looks like when hammered: By comparing with similar hammered balls of other metals an idea of the hardness and working characteristics of the metal is given. (We use approximately the same hammering force on each ball, so lead will show much deeper hammer marks than zinc, for example.) Source: Theodore Gray Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 1 May, 2004 Text Updated: 11 August, 2007 Price: See Listing Size: 2" Purity: >99% Sample Group: RGB Samples |
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Museum-grade sample. In early 2004 Max Whitby and I started selling individual element samples identical or similar to the samples we use in the museum displays we build. These are top-quality samples presented in attractive forms appropriate to the particular element. They are for sale from Max's website and also on eBay where you will find an ever-changing selection of samples (click the link to see the current listings). This ingot is designed to show what the surface of the metal looks like when hammered: By comparing with similar hammered ingots of other metals an idea of the hardness and working characteristics of the metal is given. (We use approximately the same hammering force on each ingot, so lead will show much deeper hammer marks than zinc, for example.) Source: Theodore Gray Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 6 March, 2004 Text Updated: 11 August, 2007 Price: See Listing Size: 4" Purity: >99% Sample Group: RGB Samples |
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Triangular bar. This is a lovely antique bar of cadmium from Max Whitby. He'd planned to use it in the beautiful periodic table display that he and I recently installed at DePauw University, but I thought it would go better in my collection: We gave DePauw a couple of much more dramatic 2" cadmium balls instead. Source: Max Whitby of RGB Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB Acquired: 1 November, 2003 Text Updated: 11 August, 2007 Price: Donated Size: 5" Purity: >99% |
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Link in multi-metal chain. I had been wondering about how hard it would be to make a multi-part graphite mold with which I could cast chain links around each other. That is, given an existing link, cast a new one interlinked with it. This turns out to be quite do-able: Here is the mold I made (using my drill press as a vertical mill and a round-ended router bit):   In case you ever want to try this, I'll give you an important hint: The third link is the real test, not the second one. Using this mold I have cast a chain out of all the metals I can easily cast. Click the Sample Group link below to see all the links together. This chain (counted as one sample) is the 600th sample added to my collection. Source: sulfuric.com Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 9 August, 2003 Text Updated: 20 February, 2006 Price: $1/pound Size: 3" Purity: 99.99% Sample Group: Multi-metal Chain |
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Anode balls. These balls are identical to my first sample under cadmium, the difference is that when I got the first sample, the thought of purchasing a hundred pounds of cadmium was ludicrous. These balls are part of a lot of a hundred pounds (91.5 actually) I purchased from a large cadmium distributor recently. How things change.... Most of the balls are stock for future museum displays being developed by Max Whitby and myself, but I've extracted a tax of a few for my table and for my multi-metal chain (see below). Source: sulfuric.com Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 1 August, 2003 Text Updated: 11 August, 2007 Price: $1.70/pound Size: 2" Purity: 99.98% |
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Sample from the Everest Set. Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (except gases) weigh about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order. Source: Rob Accurso Contributor: Rob Accurso Acquired: 7 February, 2003 Text Updated: 29 January, 2009 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: >99% |
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Sample from the RGB Set. The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order. The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples):  Source: Max Whitby of RGB Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB Acquired: 25 January, 2003 Text Updated: 11 August, 2007 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: 99.9975% |
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Small lump 99.998%. Kindly donated by David Franco, who sent many elements after seeing the slashdot discussion. Source: David Franco Contributor: David Franco Acquired: 17 May, 2002 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: 99.998% |
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2 inch anode ball. Purchased from eBay seller "El_Three" in May 2002. Similar balls are for sale in 100lb quantities by suppliers who list them as "anode balls". I'm not clear what industrial process they are used for, but reader Dan Burrill from the UK reports as follows: It is almost certainly used in electroplating, where the anode often consists of a cloth bag containing balls of metal or shot, depending upon the exact coating required. I'm not an expert on the subject, but my late father and I have worked in plating factories in the past and seen this in action. I believe this is done to provide a larger surface area, whilst the cloth bag prevents particles of the disintegrating anode from detaching and adhering to the article being plated.Sounds plausible to me. Source: eBay seller el_three Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 13 May, 2002 Price: $35 Size: 2" Purity: >95% |
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Ni-Cad battery. A common nickel-cadmium battery. These have fallen out of favor due to the toxied nature of cadmium. Nickel metal hydride and lithium ion batteries are pretty much better in all ways.. Source: eBay Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 11 March, 2009 Text Updated: 12 March, 2009 Price: $5 Size: 2" Composition: NiCdMn |
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Greenockite from Jensan Set. This sample represents indium in the "The Grand Tour of the Periodic Table" mineral collection from Jensan Scientifics. Visit my page about element collecting for a general description, or see photographs of all the samples from the set in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order. Source: Jensan Scientifics Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 10 January, 2009 Text Updated: 10 January, 2009 Price: Anonymous Size: 1" Composition: CdS |
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Photo Card Deck of the Elements. In late 2006 I published a photo periodic table and it's been selling well enough to encourage me to make new products. This one is a particularly neat one: A complete card deck of the elements with one big five-inch (12.7cm) square card for every element. If you like this site and all the pictures on it, you'll love this card deck. And of course if you're wondering what pays for all the pictures and the internet bandwidth to let you look at them, the answer is people buying my posters and cards decks. Hint hint. Source: Theodore Gray Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 19 November, 2008 Text Updated: 28 October, 2017 Price: $35 Size: 5" Composition: HHeLiBeBCNOFNeNaMg AlSiPSClArKCaScTiVCrMn FeCoNiCuZnGaGeAsSeBrKr RbSrYZrNbMoTcRuRhPdAg CdInSnSbTeIXeCsBaLaCePr NdPmSmEuGdTbDyHoErTm YbLuHfTaWReOsIrPtAuHgTl PbBiPoAtRnFrRaAcThPaUNp PuAmCmBkCfEsFmMdNoLrRf DbSgBhHsMtDsRgCnNhFlMcLvTsOg |
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Greenockite from Jensan Set. This sample represents cadmium in the "The Grand Tour of the Periodic Table" mineral collection from Jensan Scientifics. Visit my page about element collecting for a general description, or see photographs of all the samples from the set in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order. Source: Jensan Scientifics Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 29 October, 2008 Text Updated: 29 October, 2008 Price: Anonymous Size: 1" Composition: CdS |
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