The largest market for niobium (>80%) is in high-strength, low-alloy steel production where it brings high temperature strength and corrosion resistance to gas pipelines, automobile components and structural steel. Niobium, like tantalum, can act as an electrolytic valve allowing alternating current to pass in only one direction through an electrolytic cell. Niobium is used in arc-welding rods for stabilized grades of stainless steel. It is also used in advanced air frame systems.
Perhaps its most interesting applications are in the field of superconductivity. Superconductive magnets are made with Nb-Zr (niobium and zirconium) wire, which retains superconductivity in strong magnetic fields. Other alloys of niobium, such as those with tin and aluminum, are superconductive as well. Pure niobium is itself a superconductor when it is cooled below 9.25 K (-263.9°C). Niobium is used in lamp filaments and to make jewelry. It is capable of being colored by an electrolytic process.
Niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5 ) improves the refractive index of optical glass, allowing for thinner and lighter lenses, advanced optics, camera lenses, and eyeglasses. Niobium and niobium oxides are also emerging as a dielectric material for electronic capacitors.
Applications of Niobium with Different Products
Ferro-niobium
• Application: Niobium additive to ‘high strength low alloy’ steel and stainless steel for oil and gas pipelines, car and truck bodies, architectural requirments, tool steels, ships’ hulls, railroad tracks, etc.
• Attributes: Double strength and toughness due to grain refining; Reduce weight.
Vacuum Grade Ferro-niobium and Nickel-niobium
• Application: Superalloy additive for turbine blade applications in jet engines and land-based turbines; Inconel family of alloys and superalloys.
• Attributes: Increase in high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance, improved creep resistance, reduced erosion at high temperatures.
Niobium Powder
• Application: Niobium capacitors for electronic circuits.
• Attributes: High dielectric constant, stability of oxide dielectric.
Niobium Mill Products
• Form: Rod, Wire, Plates, Sheets, Strips, Tubing and Custom Forms.
• Application: Sputtering targets; Cathode protection systems for large steel structures; Chemical processing equipment.
• Attributes: Corrosion resistance, formation of oxide and nitride films; Increase in high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance, improved creep resistance, reduced erosion at high temperatures.
Niobium Alloy with 1% Zirconium
• Form: Rod, Wire, Plates, Sheets, Strips, Tubing and Custom Forms.
• Application: Sodium vapor lamps; Chemical processing equipment
• Attributes: Corrosion resistance, fixation of oxygen, resistance to
embrittlement.
Niobium Alloys with Titanium and Tin
• Application: Superconducting magnetic coils in magnetic resonance imagery (MRI), magnetoencephalography, magnetic levitation transport systems, particle physics experiments.
• Attributes: Electrical resistance of alloy wire drops to virtually zero at or below temperature of liquid helium (-268.8°C).
Niobium Oxide
• Application: Manufacture lithium niobate for surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters; Camera lenses; Coating on glass for computer screens; Ceramic capacitors.
• Attributes: High index of refraction; High dielectric constant; Increase light transmittance.
Niobium Carbide
• Application: Cutting tools and blades.
• Attributes: High temperature deformation, controls grain growth.