Period 6 element 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its robustness, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the non-alloyed metals and the second highest of all the elements after carbon. Also remarkable is its high density of 19.3 times that of water, comparable to that of uranium and gold, and much higher (about 1.7 times) than that of lead. Tungsten with minor amounts of impurities is often brittle and hard, making it difficult to work. However, very pure tungsten, though still hard, is more ductile, and can be cut
Melting-point depression and thermal properties. This article focuses on nanoparticles because researchers have compiled a large amount of size-dependent melting data for near spherical nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are easiest to study due their ease of fabrication and simplified conditions for theoretical modeling. The melting temperature of a nanoparticle decreases sharply as the particle reaches critical diameter, usually < 50 nm for common engineering metals. Figure 1 shows the shape of a typical melting curve for a metal nanoparticle as a function of its diameter. Melting point depression is a very important issue for applications involving nanoparticles, as it decreases the functional range of