At normal temperatures, tantalum rods are inactive to alkaline solutions, chlorine gas, bromine water, dilute sulfuric acid and many other chemicals. They only react under the action of hydrofluoric acid and hot concentrated sulfuric acid. Such situations are relatively rare in metals.
The characteristics of tantalum make its application fields very broad. In equipment for preparing various inorganic acids, tantalum can be used to replace stainless steel, and its service life can be extended dozens of times compared to stainless steel. In addition, in the chemical, electronic, electrical and other industries, tantalum can replace the tasks that used to be performed by the precious metal platinum, greatly reducing the cost.
In addition, tantalum is also an important element in refining super-strong steel, corrosion-resistant steel and heat-resistant steel alloys, and can provide special materials necessary for the development of space technologies such as rockets, spacecrafts, and jet aircraft. Non-magnetic alloys made of tantalum and tungsten are widely used in the electrical industry, especially tantalum carbide, which is composed of tantalum and carbon. It has extremely hardness and is comparable to diamond even under high conditions.
