* Bismuth is a member of the main group metals family:
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BISMUTH / Bi / 83
A heavy, silvery (with a slight pink tinge), very brittle metal
that has moderate resistance to corrosion. Nearly all bismuth
found in nature is Bi<209/83>, which is stable, though a smattering
of transitory bismuth isotopes do occur as steps in various
radioactive series.
atomic weight: 208.98038
abundance: 70th
density: 9.7 gm/cc
melting point: 271 C
boiling point: 1,560 C
valence: <3> 5
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Bismuth is produced at the rate of a few thousand tonnes a year. It has a limited range of applications: bismuth compounds are used as catalysts in the synthesis of plastics, and an alloy of bismuth and cadmium with a low melting point is used in automatic sprinkler systems.
