Heavy Metal Lover Quiz | Chemistry

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. All compounds of this transition metal are considered toxic, but its name was selected because it forms compounds with a range of colors, including lilac, green, blue and yellow. Which element was named for the Germanic goddess of beauty, Vanadis?

Answer: Vanadium

Like a number of other transition metals, vanadium has multiple oxidation states available when forming compounds, and each of them produces a compound of a different color. The most common oxide is vanadium (V) oxide, V2O5. This compound has a number of uses, including involvement in the production of sulfuric acid - it reacts with sulfur dioxide to produce sulfur trioxide, which then reacts with water to produce sulfuric acid.

Vanadium does not occur free in nature. It was first discovered in 1801 by Andreas del Rio, who detected it in a mineral which he called 'brown lead' (now known as vanadinite), and named it erythronium (the Greek word for red) because the compound he isolated turned red when heated. He was later convinced by others that this was actually chromium, but in 1831 Nils Gabriel rediscovered vanadium, and gave it the name which is currently used. Metallic vanadium was first produced in 1867 by Henry Roscoe.

2. The toxicity of this element is well known, but when I was a child we still played with it in science classes. What element, also known as quicksilver, is the only metallic element that is liquid at room temperature and pressure?

Answer: Mercury

Mercury, whose chemical symbol Hg derives from its older name of hydrargum, meaning silver water, is highly toxic when in a water-soluble compound. The vapors of the actual metal are also toxic, but it was nevertheless widely used in a number of applications such as thermometers, barometers, electrical switches, and is apparently still used as part of the mixture used to fill dental cavities. And, of course, it's fun to watch the little balls of mercury roll around on a flat surface - have you seen the maze puzzles which involve tipping a sealed container to move the mercury through the maze? Harder than the ones with solid metal balls, because the mercury tends to fragment, and you have to go back to pick up the pieces.

The red paint pigment vermilion is produced from cinnabar, one of the most common naturally-occurring mercury compounds.

3. This 'heavy metal' is actually a metalloid, meaning that its properties are transitional between those of a metal and those of a non-metal. Compounds of which of these elements were used in Victorian England to help women whiten their complexions?

Answer: Arsenic

In Victorian England, arsenic trioxide mixed with chalk and vinegar was consumed to improve ladies' complexion - pale skin showed that they were high class, and did not labor in the sun. Rubbing the mixture on the skin also aided in the bleaching process. And, of course, arsenic has been a popular poison for murder, as any fan of Agatha Christie would know.

Its use by heads of state for the removal of political rivals over the centuries has led to it being nicknamed "the poison of kings". The symptoms of arsenic poisoning include headache, drowsiness and severe diarrhea - pretty hard to pin down until specific tests are done on the blood or tissues of the victim.

4. Compounds of this element, whose name comes from the German word for goblins, have long been used as blue pigments for paints and glass. Mostly produced as a by-product of copper and nickel mining, what is this element?

Answer: Cobalt

The ore from which cobalt is usually extracted has long been called kobold ore, German for goblin ore. This is a reference to the fact that these ores had a low mineral content (in terms of the familiar minerals for which they were looking), and that they release poisonous gasses when smelted. In 1735 it was found that a new metal, eventually named for the kobold, was present in these minerals.

Cobalt has a number of practical uses, but the most spectacular is the use of the compounds cobalt silicate and cobalt (II) aluminate to produce a distinctive blue color (called cobalt blue) to glass, ceramics, inks and paints. The radioactive isotope cobalt-60 has important uses in medical radioactive tracing, and is a strong source of gamma rays.

5. Most people are aware that a deficiency of this element can cause serious health issues as it leads to a shortage of hemoglobin in the blood, a condition referred to as anemia. However, an excessive intake of this element can lead to damage of the heart, liver and other organs. Which element is being described here?

Answer: Iron

Many people take iron supplements to ensure an adequate intake of this element which is essential for health. Overconsumption, however, can be problematic, and a number of nations' health authorities have a recommended maximum daily intake level for iron.

So iron is necessary for health, even though it does have toxicity issues. It is possibly more important to contemporary society as the main constituent of steel, the most widely used of all metals due to its abundance, relatively low cost of production, and high strength.

One of my favorite high-school chemistry experiments involves investigating the corrosion of steel nails, and the use of the test chemical potassium hexacyanoferrate to show the presence of iron ions formed when the steel oxidizes. The compound formed is a color called Prussian blue, and is absolutely gorgeous! Prussian blue was one of the first synthetic pigments used by painters, and is the color traditionally used in blueprints. Prussian blue also has medicinal uses as an antidote for some forms of heavy metal poisoning.

6. Agatha Christie used this heavy metal as a poison in her novel "The Pale Horse" - the clue to the method of murder arising from the fact that the victims suffered hair loss. The toxicity of the element and its compounds has led to its use as a poison in baits for rats and ants, although this is less common now than it used to be. Which element, for which Prussian blue is an antidote, has the chemical symbol Tl?

Answer: Thallium

Thallium gets its name from a Greek word meaning 'a green shoot' - this refers to the bright green lines in its emission spectrum. The use of thallium sulfate as a pesticide has been largely stopped, due to the high risk of accidentally poisoning an unintended victim. The radioactive isotope thallium-201 is used in cardiography stress tests, and thallium salts can increase the efficiency of gold-plating solutions.

As an aside, Agatha Christie's novel has been credited with saving at least two lives - people who read the book recognized that they shared the symptoms described in it, and were alerted to the fact that they were being systematically poisoned.

7. Its use in NiCad batteries makes this element very useful, but it does have a toxicity similar to that of mercury and zinc, both of which have many similar chemical properties to this element, which means its use is declining as suitable substitutes are found. Originally discovered as an impurity in zinc carbonate, which element was named after the founder of the Greek city of Thebes?

Answer: Cadmium

Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, was honored by having the element cadmium named after him when it was discovered simultaneously and independently in 1817 by Friedrich Stromeyer and Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann. Cadmium is a common impurity in many zinc ores, and is usually produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of zinc.

Historically, cadmium compounds have been important paint pigments, producing colors ranging from yellow through orange to red which were more stable than previous pigments. Cadmium sulfide is yellow; the more cadmium selenide (which is nearly black in color) is added to the mixture, the more orange or red the final product. They are commonly used in coloring plastics as well as artists' oil paints, but this use is being discouraged in some places, especially for children's plastic toys, due to their toxicity.

8. The most common use of this element (more than half of the world-wide production is earmarked for this use) is in car batteries. You would really hate to see this element disappear, even if its compounds are toxic! Many of its compounds are very colorful, so it has been used in paints, but its use in household paints has been dramatically decreased over the past half century. What element gets its chemical symbol from its Latin name, plumbum?

Answer: Lead

The lead-acid accumulator battery is an efficient device that used a galvanic reaction between lead plates, lead (IV) oxide plates, and the sulfuric acid in which they are immersed to produce an electric current that is used to start your car. The chemical reactions involved produce lead sulfate. As you drive, a current is pushed through the cells in the reverse direction, causing the lead sulfate to react so as to reform the original plates.

Lead is also useful as one of the ingredients of solder, and as a shield against radioactive materials. Its malleability also made it useful as a way of holding together the pieces of glass in stained glass windows.

9. Which metal, probably most familiar from its use as a nuclear fuel and in nuclear weapons, was named for what was then considered the furthest planet from the sun when it was first produced at the Berkeley, CA cyclotron in 1940?

Answer: Plutonium

Following a trend set by those who named the first transuranic element Neptunium after the planet Neptune, Glenn Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Joseph Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl named their new element plutonium, after the next planet, Pluto (since reclassified as the second-largest dwarf planet in the solar system rather than the smallest planet). Plutonium is radioactive, releasing alpha particles; alpha particles have a low penetrating ability, but are highly toxic to cells with which they come in contact, so they pose a significant health risk. The energy released by this decay mode makes a sample of plutonium heat up - it's not safe to touch, but it would feel warm if you did so. And, of course, plutonium is fissile, meaning that a large enough mass can sustain a nuclear fission chain reaction - this is what makes it useful for weapons and as the fuel of nuclear power reactors.

Like many other heavy metals, plutonium has a number of different oxidation states (charges on its ion) available, and they make lovely colored solutions - you can produce lavender, blue, yellow, pink, brown, and olive green solutions by dissolving the appropriate salts. The color depends not only on the charge on the plutonium ion, which can range from +3 to +7, but on the nature of the negative ions in the solution, since the color is formed through the production of complex ions.

10. Small amounts of this heavy metal are essential for healthy body functioning, but too much of it can lead to serious problems in the respiratory and nervous systems. One of its more familiar compounds is commonly called Condy's crystals, a strong oxidizing agent which dissolves to form a purple solution, and is used as a treatment for fungal infections. What is the chemical name for Condy's crystals?

Answer: Potassium permanganate

Potassium permanganate is a strong oxidizing agent, useful in experimental applications because the solution changes color from purple to clear as it is reduced. Not only was it formerly used as a treatment for gonorrhea, it is still used to treat thrush infections, and can counteract the effects of strychnine.

Small amounts of manganese are essential in the diet, as it is required for the proper action of a large number of enzymes. Manganese can be found in (among other foods) spinach, green beans, soya beans, nuts, olive oil and oysters. Oysters Rockefeller can be argued to be health food, not indulgence! Ingestion of too much manganese, however, can lead to acute poisoning, of which the symptoms include headaches, insomnia, weakness and schizophrenic-type hallucinations. Breathing in manganese-laden dust can lead to chronic poisoning, with similar symptoms but more serious biological damage.

Source: Author looney_tunes

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Heavy Metal Lover Trivia Quiz

The term 'heavy metal' is not clearly defined, and can be used in reference to a large range of elements. This quiz explores ten elements which pose toxicity risks for humans, and looks at some reasons to love them.

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