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Germanium is a lot like silicon: It's a semiconductor from which
you can build complex electronic circuits, and in bulk form it's
a dark, shiny crystalline yet sort of metallic solid. It's quite
expensive, much more expensive than silicon, and not nearly as
commonly used.
Germanium can also be used as an x-ray lens, because even though
it's opaque to visible light, it transmits and can focus x-rays.
Silicon and Germanium are available in higher purity grades than
virtually any other elements. Silicon in particular can be had
in large quantities at reasonable prices, at a purity that
exceeds anything else achieved by the hand of man. Germanium is
similar, just more expensive. The reason for this is not that
other elements are necessarily more difficult to purify (some
are, some aren't), it's that there is a huge market demand for
hyperpure silicon and to a lesser extent germanium for the
semiconductor industry.
Additional information available at
"http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Elements/032/"
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