Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog all about Lead! Throughout this blog you will find an array of insightful and punctual information along with pictures, videos, links and interesting facts all about lead!  To the right is my bibliography, along with some interesting, ancient pictures.  Click on the title of the blog to review the whole page.  Towards the bottom of the home page, you may need to click "View older posts" in order to see the rest of my blogs. Enjoy!

What is Lead?

Lead is a highly toxic, malleable and abundant metal that is found in small amounts inside the earth’s crust. The large abundance and flexibility of lead allows for many uses, however the element is a very toxic poison. Lead is a moderately active metal

Lead Pipe

Physical Properties:
Lead (Pb)
Atomic Number: 82
Atomic Mass: 207.2 amu
Melting Point: 327.5° C
Boiling Point: 1740.0° C
Number of Protons/Electrons: 82

• Lead makes up the small amount of 0.0013% for the Earth's crust
• Electron Dot Model:

Discovery

• First use of lead was by the Romans who used lead in their writing tablets and coins
• Scientists believe that lead poisoning also started with the Romans who most likely used lead utensils to prepare their food, thus poisoning them
• Manuscripts of the word “lead” date back to before the 12th century in Rome
• Romans called the element Latin word, “plumbum” which is why the symbol is Pb
• Furnaces made of stone suggest the extraction of lead in the prehistoric era

How is Lead Obtained?

• Lead is obtained from a method with many other metals

1. Ore is heated in air (converts the ore to lead oxide PbO₂)
2. PbO₂ is heated with pure carbon
3. The carbon takes oxygen away from PbO₂
4. Leaves pure lead

• Lead can be further purified electrolytically (passing an electric current through a compound)
• Lead can also be obtained from recycling

1. Process in which a material is retrieved from a product that is no longer used
2. Extracted

What is Lead Used For?

**Many products that once used lead are now being made without the element because of the dangers to humans and the environment (see "Lead Poisoning)**

• Lead can be found in beverages, water and food. This concept is exceptionally frightening to think about because the element cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled.
• Used in paints, wrappings for food, tobacco, sewer pipes, roofing, cable coverings, type metal and other alloys, additive in gasoline, ammunition
• 1960’s sparked concern about the health effects of lead, researchers have found that lead can cause mental and physical problems including lack of muscular coordination, convulsions and coma
• Lead's main use is to make batteries; mostly automobile batteries. These lead-acid based batteries are the oldest type of automative batteries that are still being used today. Their low cost and high surge currents of electricity make them one of the top automobile batteries used today.
• Lead is also a main component in the materials to roof or weatherproof buildings.  Lead has a high resistance to corrosion, which makes it strong and ideal for roofing a home or building. 

Grouped Lead Uses

Example of older car battery plates made from lead

Lead on the Periodic Table

From the picture above, you can see that lead is main metal, located in Group 4.  It's placement in group 4 tells us that it has four electrons in its outermost (valence) shell.  Also, lead has an atomic number of 82 which places it in it's numerical order of the number of protons in each element. 

Atomic Radius (PM): 175
I have never seen the unit PM before, so after doing a little research, I discovered that PM is picometers, and 1 PM is equal to one trillionth of a meter (1/1,000,000,000,000)


Atomic Volume: 18.3


First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 715.2


Electron Configuration: 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁶4s²3d¹⁰4p⁶5s²4d¹⁰5p⁶6s²4f¹⁴5d¹⁰6p²   
or   [Xe] 6p²4f¹⁴5d¹⁰6p²

Density at 293 K: 11.34 g/cm³

I thought that 293 was such a random number and wondered why researchers would use it.  So, I looked it up and discovered that 273.15 is the freezing point of water on the Kelvin scale.  Then, the formula K = C+273.15.  And if the temperature in Kelvins is 273.15, the temperature in Celsius is 19.85, thus giving us 293 K :)


Atomic Structure:

Electronegativity: 1.8


Melting Point: 327.5° C
Boiling Point: 1740.0° C
The melting point and boiling point are significant to this element because they help determine whether or not it is a metal. Lead is a poor metal, and the poor metals tend to have low melting and boiling points.  Although a high boiling point distinguishes lead from the metalloids.  Also, the poor metals are softer than those of the transition metals.  When burned, toxic fumes are extracted from lead.  

What Does Lead Look Like?

There are many forms of the appearance of lead; it's compounds form powders along with gases.  Here are some examples of lead ore, products, and metallic appearance.