Roman metal

The ancient Egyptians used lead as early as the fourth millennium b.c.e. Later, the Romans developed and expanded the use of lead during the Roman Empire to impressive levels, so lead is often referred to as the Roman metal. The large-scale use of the metal most probably caused considerable environmental contamination of food, drink, and the atmosphere (Nriagu 1983). 

During the Roman period lead became a commodity that was more actively sought and mined in its own right. Indeed, lead is sometimes referred to as a Roman metal because of the increased intensity of its usage in this era. It... 

L. alumen, alum) The ancient Greeks and Romans used alum as an astringent and as a mordant in dyeing. In 1761 de Morveau proposed the name alumine for the base in alum, and Lavoisier, in 1787, thought this to be the oxide of a still undiscovered metal. 

L. calx, lime) Though lime was prepared by the Romans in the first century under the name calx, the metal was not discovered until 1808. After learning that Berzelius and Pontin prepared calcium amalgam by electrolyzing lime in mercury, Davy was able to isolate the impure metal. 

Lead is a bluish-white metal of bright luster, is very soft, highly malleable, ductile, and a poor conductor of electricity. It is very resistant to corrosion lead pipes bearing the insignia of Roman emperors, used as drains from the baths, are still in service. It is used in containers for corrosive liquids (such as sulfuric acid) and may be toughened by the addition of a small percentage of antimony or other metals. 

Lead is easily cast and formed. It is one of the oldest known metals, used before 3000 BC. Early civilizations used lead extensively for ornamental and stmctural uses, and lead pipes used for the transportation of water by the Romans have endured. 

Tin [7440-31 -5] is one of the world s most ancient metals. When and where it was discovered is uncertain, but evidence points to tin being used in 3200—3500 BC. Ancient bron2e weapons and tools found in Ur contained 10—15 wt % tin. In 79 ad, Pliny described an alloy of tin and lead now commonly called solder (see Solders and brazing alloys). The Romans used tinned copper vessels, but tinned iron vessels did not appear until the fourteenth century in Bohemia. Tinned sheet for metal containers and tole (painted) ware made its appearance in England and Saxony about the middle of the seventeenth century. Although tinplate was not manufactured in the United States until the early nineteenth century, production increased rapidly and soon outstripped that in all other countries (1). 

The word calcium is derived from calx, the Latin word for lime. The Romans used large quantities of calcium oxide or lime as mortar in constmction (see Lime and limestone). Because calcium compounds are very stable, elemental calcium was not produced until 1808 when a mercury amalgam resulted from electrolysis of calcium chloride in the presence of a mercury cathode. However, attempts to isolate the pure metal by distilling the mercury were only marginally successful. 

Hydrometallurigcal Processes. In hydrometaHurgical processes, metal values and by-products are recovered from aqueous solution by chemical or electrolytic processes. Values are solubilized by treating waste, ore, or concentrates. Leaching of copper ores in place by rain or natural streams and the subsequent recovery of copper from mnoff mine water as impure cement copper have been practiced since Roman times. Most hydrometaHurgical treatments have been appHed to ores or overburden in which the copper was present as oxide, mixed oxide—sulfide, or native copper. PyrometaHurgical and hydrometaHurgical processes are compared in Reference 34. 

The attraction of rubbed amber and some other effects of electricity were known in ancient times. We know from finding nails in an old wreck that the Romans knew about contact corrosion combined with electric current flow. A skin of lead as a protection against boring worms covered the wooden planks of the ship and was nailed down with copper nails. Galvanic coupIe.s formed between the lead and the copper nails and the less noble lead sheets around the nails corroded in the seawater and fell off. The shipbuilders discovered a simple solution and covered the heads of the copper nails with lead as well. Galvanic current flow between the two metals was eliminated and corrosion was prevented (26). 

Dr. Roman V. Chepulskii Scientific Researcher Dept, of Solid State Theory Institute of Metal Physics National Acad. Sci. of Ukraine 36, Acad. Vernadsky Blvd. 

There is one complication. As mentioned earlier, certain metals in the transition and post-transition series form more than one cation, for example, Fe2+ and Fe3+. To distinguish between these cations, the charge must be indicated in the name. This is done by putting the charge as a Roman numeral in parentheses after the name of the metal ... 

In naming the compounds of transition or post-transition metals, we ordinarily indicate the charge of the metal cation by a Roman numeral ... 

In contrast, we never use Roman numerals with compounds of the Group 1 or Group 2 metals they always form cations with charges of +1 or +2, respectively. 

As you can deduce from the preceding examples, the oxidation number of the central metal ion is indicated by a Roman numeral written at the end of the name. 

The name of a monatomic cation is the same as the name of the element forming it, with the addition of the word ion, as in sodium ion for Na+. When an element can form more than one kind of cation, such as Cu+ and Cu2+ from copper, we use the oxidation number, the charge of the cation, written as a Roman numeral in parentheses following the name of the element. Thus, Cu+ is a copper(I) ion and Cu2+ is a copper(II) ion. Similarly, Fe2+ is an iron(II) ion and Fe3" is an iron(III) ion. As shown in Fig. C.6, most transition metals form more than one kind of ion so unless we are given other information we need to include the oxidation number in the names of their compounds. 

Step 1 Identify the cation and the anion (see Table D.l or Appendix 3A, if necessary). To determine the oxidation number of the cation, decide what cation charge is required to cancel the total negative charge of the anions. Step 2 Name the cation. If the metal can have more than one oxidation number (most transition metals and some metals in Groups 12 through 15/V), give its charge as a Roman numeral. 

A Roman numeral denotes the oxidation number of the central metal ion ... 

If the complex has an overall negative charge (an anionic complex), the suffix -ate is added to the stem of the metal s name. If the symbol of the metal originates from a Latin name (as listed in Appendix 2D), then the Latin stem is used. For example, the symbol for iron is Fe, from the Latin ferrum. Therefore, any anionic complex of iron ends with -ferrate followed by the oxidation number of the metal in Roman numerals ... 

Roman, O. V., Kirilyuk, L., and Chernousova, S., Gas-Phase Precipitation of Tungsten Carbide Coatings,Metall, 6 53-56(1987)... 

Oxidation state is a frequently used (and indeed misused) concept which apportions charges and electrons within complex molecules and ions. We stress that oxidation state is a formal concept, rather than an accurate statement of the charge distributions within compounds. The oxidation state of a metal is defined as the formal charge which would be placed upon that metal in a purely ionic description. For example, the metals in the gas phase ions Mn + and Cu are assigned oxidation states of +3 and +1 respectively. These are usually denoted by placing the formal oxidation state in Roman numerals in parentheses after the element name the ions Mn- " and Cu+ are examples of manganese(iii) and copper(i). 

Name compounds by applying the guidelines. The guidelines for naming binary compounds that contain metals differ from those for compounds containing no metal. Unless a metal forms only one stable atomic cation, its charge must be specified with a Roman numeral in parentheses. 

MgCls Magnesium is a metal that always forms a +2 ion. This ionic compound is named without Roman numerals or prefixes magnesium chloride. 

Cr03 As a transition metal, chromium forms more than one stable cation. Name the metal first, using a Roman numeral to designate chromium s charge. Each of the three oxide anions has a -2 charge. To maintain net charge neutrality, Cr must be +6, so the name of the compound is chromium(VI) oxide. 

After the name of the metal, give the oxidation number of the metal in parentheses as a Roman numeral or as 0 if the oxidation number is zero. 

---