Manganese
Hi, I am Manganese. I am an element discovered in 1774 by the Swedish
chemist
Johan Gottlieb Gahn. My symbol was devised, coincidentally, by
taking the first
and third letters in the word manganese. My atomic number is
25, my atomic mass
is 54.938, and my density is 7.2. I melt at 1245º C and
then in turn I boil at
1962º C. A fact about my ionization energy
currently escapes me, but I do have
some uses and interesting facts in the
rest of the paper. I am used as an
antioxidant nutrient, I activate important
enzymes that are needed in digestion,
and I am the 12th most abundant element
in the earth’s crust. And now I will
switch into a third person perspective
because I am bored of talking in the
first. Manganese is a silvery, brittle
metallic element that is used to
strengthen alloys with armor. Manganese
metal corrodes in moist air and
dissolves in acid. Pure manganese can be
obtained by electrolyzing manganese
sulfate or by igniting pyrolusite. The
free state of the metal only occurs in
meteors, but it is found in ores all
over the earth, predominantly in Ukraine,
Georgia, and South Africa. The
alloys which are made with manganese are usually
used in steelmaking, are
ferromanganese, and spiegeleisen. Manganese dioxide (pyrolusite)
is used in
dry-cell batteries, paint, varnish oils, coloring glass, ceramics,
and in
preparing chlorine and iodine. Other forms of manganese are used
as
oxidizers, disinfectants, and as a depolarizer.