Why does tungsten have such a high melting point???? (I need to know this for a project)

[jiffylube1024]

I have a project due in a few weeks for a second year computer/electrical engineering course and I can't find any information on exactly why tungsten melts at such a high temperature (~3410 C), from the point of view of its atomic/crystal structure, etc. I have been doing a fair bit of research into the matter (and the presentation part is close to completion), however I cannot find anything relevant to this particular point.

Any information would be really helpful!

Thanks in advance!

 

[jarsoffart]

I know Tungsten has a really high density and it's used for the filament in light bulbs. I'm not sure if that is of any use, but it might be. You might have overlooked those facts.

I just asked one of my genius friends that goes to Harvard and he says "one of its intermolecular bonding forces is really strong, which one I don't know, look at its structure for that."

 

[wurmyhi]

yup...lots of bonding orbitals are filled in W, with few anti-bonding orbitals filled

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: jarsoffart
I know Tungsten has a really high density and it's used for the filament in light bulbs. I'm not sure if that is of any use, but it might be. You might have overlooked those facts.

I just asked one of my genius friends that goes to Harvard and he says "one of its intermolecular bonding forces is really strong, which one I don't know, look at its structure for that."

Hey there,

thanks for the reply, but I already knew that . Yeah, I want to know which part of its structure makes it so strong.

Yeah, I know of it's application in lightbulbs (obviously), in x-ray machines (electrons are pretty much "boiled" off the filament in this application), etc. I know of it's origins (discovered by a pair of brothers in Spain I believe - info is somewhere here).

Did you know that Thomas Edison never used a tungsten filament for a lightbulb (or that someone else published almost exactly the same work as him a year earlier!). Edison used carbon; tungsten wasn't used until years later!

BUT, I still need to know why it has such a high melting point (in specific details).

Any help would be great!

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: jarsoffart
I know Tungsten has a really high density and it's used for the filament in light bulbs. I'm not sure if that is of any use, but it might be. You might have overlooked those facts.

I just asked one of my genius friends that goes to Harvard and he says "one of its intermolecular bonding forces is really strong, which one I don't know, look at its structure for that."

Hey there,

thanks for the reply, but I already knew that . Yeah, I want to know which part of its structure makes it so strong.

Yeah, I know of it's application in lightbulbs (obviously), in x-ray machines (electrons are pretty much "boiled" off the filament in this application), etc. I know of it's origins (discovered by a pair of brothers in Spain I believe - info is somewhere here).

Did you know that Thomas Edison never used a tungsten filament for a lightbulb (or that someone else published almost exactly the same work as him a year earlier!). Edison used carbon; tungsten wasn't used until years later!

BUT, I still need to know why it has such a high melting point (in specific details).

Any help would be great!

read wurmyhi's reply. the answer is right there. in edison's time, tungsten couldnt be melted. a more dumbed down version of wurmyhi's reply would be high intermolecular forces. tungsten is one of the densist elements.

 

[RossGr]

It is all about stregth of bonds, little to do with density. The MP of carbon (Tom Edisions element) is 3550C while Tungsten is lower at 3410C. W (Tungsten) has 4 electrons in a shell which fill at 10, the ctrystaln structure wants to share outer electons to make the shell complete. At first glance it does not seem like this would lend itself to a compact structure. The density of W indicates that it does have a compact structure. Perhaps pairs of electrons are shared, thus 5 atoms of W each contributing 2 electrons could form a face centered cubic structure. This would lend itself to a dense material with short, strong bonds, thus a high MP.

These are guesses that I am making from examining the electron structure which I found in my CRC handbook of Chem & Physics.

Here are some details, perhaps someone more chemically astute then I can use this to confirm or deny my above conjectures.

W has full electron shells through 5 its structure there is 5s2,5p6,5d4,5f0,6s2

The 5d shell fills at 10.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Thanks for the replies- some good info there!