What are common uses of indium?

Indium used in brazing materials and alloys

The alloy can improve the strength and ductility after added a small amount of indium. 

Indium alloys can be used in the production of solar cells. Copper indium gallium selenium thin-film solar cells have the characteristics of low production cost, low pollution, no decay, and good low-light performance, which is internationally known as "a very prospect new thin-film solar cell in the next era".

Due to its excellent ductility (plasticity), low vapor pressure, and ability to adhere to a variety of materials, it is widely used as a gasket or lining material in high-altitude instruments and aerospace equipment. Indium foil is often used as a contactor for ultrasonic linear retardation.

In the atomic energy industry, indium is used to make neutron indicators. Many alloys of indium are commonly used to make control rods in nuclear reactors. Indium is also an excellent material for making neutron detectors and rivals.

The initial application of indium metal is industrial bearings, the surface of the bearing is plated with indium, and the service life of the bearing will be 5 times longer than the ordinary plated bearing.

Alloys of indium and gallium can lubricate sliding elements, therefore it also can be used in electric vacuum instruments.

Indium is easy to form a firm coating on the metal surface, and has the good corrosion resistance, especially to prevent the corrosion of alkaline solutions. The coating of indium is not only bright in color but also easy to polish. Apart the pure indium coatings, the indium alloy( Indium and Zinc alloy) can also be used as coatings. Indium plating is also used in decorative processes, various mirrors, reflectors and reflectors, if the surface is coated with indium, the reflection performance and the corrosion resistance of seawater will be greatly enhanced, so this coating is often used in the reflectors of ships at sea. In addition, indium-coated bronze wire mesh can be used to exclude mercury vapor from vacuum instruments.

Due to the low melting point of indium, it can be also produced the fusible alloys., which can be used as brazing materials.

A great  prospect application of indium is stomatology. The dentures  alloys is basically alloys with gold, silver and palladium with 0.5% to 10% indium added. After adding a small amount of metal indium, the corrosion resistance and hardness of these inlays can be significantly improved, and the color of the alloy material will not become black.

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