A brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white lustrous metalloid which looks similar to tin. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is an easily pulverized metalloid occasionally found in native form, as elemental crystals.

Application

Tellurium has been used to vulcanise rubber, to tint glass and ceramics, in solar cells, in rewritable CDs and DVDs and as a catalyst in oil refining. It can be doped with silver, gold, copper or tin in semiconductor applications.