Germanium Germanium Germanium is a chemical element with symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. Pure germanium is a semiconductor with an appearance similar to elemental silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature. Because it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was discovered comparatively late in the history of chemistry. Germanium ranks near fiftieth in relative abundance of the elements in the Earth's crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties
Germanium disulfide is restricted to fumaroles of some burning coal-mining waste heaps. Germanium disulfide Germanium disulfide or Germanium(IV) sulfide is the inorganic compound with the formula GeS. It is a white high-melting crystalline solid. The compound is a 3-dimensional polymer, in contrast to silicon disulfide, which is a one-dimensional polymer. The Ge-S distance is 2.19 Å. Germanium disulfide was the first germanium compound found by Clemens Winkler, during the analysis of argyrodite. The fact that germanium sulfide does not dissolve in aqueous acid made it possible for Winkler to isolate the new element. Germanium disulfide is created by reacting hydrogen sulfide with