What is Gallium used for?

Question

What is Gallium used for?

Answer 1

Uses of Gallium :

Semiconductor and electronic industry.

As a wetting, and alloy improvement agent:

As part of an energy storage mechanism:

For liquid alloys:

Biomedical applications:

Miscellaneous:

Magnesium gallate containing impurities (such as Mn2+), is beginning to be used in ultraviolet-activated phosphor powder.

Neutrino detection. Possibly the largest amount of pure gallium ever collected in a single spot was the GALLEX neutrino detector operated in the early 1990s in an Italian mountain tunnel. The detector contained 12.2 tons of watered gallium-71. Solar neutrinos caused a few atoms of Ga-71 to become radioactive Ge-71, which were detected. The solar neutrino flux deduced was found to have a deficit of 40% from theory. This was not explained until better solar neutrino detectors and theories were constructed (see SNO).[3]

As a liquid metal ion source for a focused ion beam.

Wikipedia

Answer 2

http://www.webelements.com/gallium/uses....

"gallium wets glass or porcelain, and forms a brilliant mirror when it is painted on glass

used for doping semiconductors and producing solid-state devices such as transistors

gallium arsenide converts electricity into coherent light

alloying

90 tons of gallium (2 or 3 years of world production) is used to detect solar neutrinos by the use of the reaction: nu + 71Ga > 71Ge + e-. The rate, although very low (less than 1 interaction per day in 30 tonnes of Ga) makes gallium unique for this purpose. Two experiments are running : - GALLEX using 30 tons in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (Italy) and SAGE with 60 tons in the Baksan laboratory in Caucasus (Russia)."