I first started a career in chemistry, and as a student, you tend to get familiar with all the elements, especially the common ones. And the ones you rarely hear, sometimes some chemist have no idea what they are about. Hafnium is one of the elements that gives no recall in head. Maybe because I never worked in an industry where hafnium was used.
Hafnium (Hf), with atomic number 72, is one of the transition metals. Without any other knowledge about stock this in my head, Wikipedia gives me more information. And one interesting thing I did not know about, is Hafnium seems to show some promising semi-conductor properties that is can be a potential candidate to replace silicon dioxide chips. Studies have shown that hafnium seems to have better properties than silicon dioxide based on laboratory test. Today’s tiniest transistors in ICs for processors are at 65nanometers using silicon dioxide and if hafnium will be used, the transistors are said to be able to shrink up to 45nanometer. Intel and IBM have expressed their use of Hafnium in their future processors.
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