35 Cadmium Uses in Different Industries (Need To Know Facts!)

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Cadmium is a 4th-period transition metal having a filled d orbital and the atomic weight is 112.414 g/mol. Let us focus on the uses of Cd in different industries.

The uses of cadmium in different fields are listed below –

  • Metal battery
  • Alloys
  • Dye and pigments
  • Solar cell
  • Spectroscopy
  • Nuclear Industry
  • Electrochemistry
  • Polymer industry
  • Electronics
  • Laboratory Uses

Cd is the higher congener of the zinc metal and borderline metal element. Due to a filled orbital, it does not undergo any reaction without certain conditions. Now we discuss the uses of cadmium in different industries with a detailed explanation in the following part of the article.

Metal battery

  • Cadmium was used in batteries, predominantly in rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries.
  • Nickel-cadmium cells have a nominal cell potential of 1.2 V. The cell consists of a positive nickel hydroxide electrode and a negative cadmium electrode plate separated by an alkaline electrolyte (potassium hydroxide).
  • Another type of battery based on cadmium is the silver-cadmium battery.

Alloys

  • The addition of a minor (0.8–1.2%) amount of cadmium in copper-based alloys will increase thermal and electrical conductivity.
  • The silver-cadmium oxide electrical contact alloys utilize 10% to 15% cadmium or cadmium oxide for heavy-duty electrical applications such as relays, switches, and thermostats.
  • The presence of cadmium suppresses electrical arcing and improves the resistance to electrical erosion and material transfer.
  • Cadmium is used in many kinds of solder and bearing alloys because it has a low coefficient of friction and fatigue resistance.
  • In some of the lowest-melting alloys, such as Wood‘s metal cadmium is used.

Dye and pigments

  • Various cadmium salts are used in paint pigments, with CdS as a yellow pigment being the most common.
  • Cadmium selenide is a red pigment, commonly called cadmium red. It is used for artistic painting. they are ground with oils and binders or blended into watercolors, gouaches, acrylics, and other paint and pigment formulations.

Solar cell

  • Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) both are used in photovoltaic or solar cell applications that convert sunlight directly into energy.
  • Cadmium sulfide photoconductive cells are used in photographic exposure meters.
  • Cadmium sulfide also has been used as a highly sensitive photoreceptor in the electrophotographic systems in photocopiers.

Spectroscopy

  • Other cadmium compounds, including those containing sulfide, tungstate, borate, and silicate, are essential in the preparation of light-emitting phosphors that are activated by electron beams.
  • Cadmium mercury telluride is utilized in infrared imaging systems, and other cadmium selenides are used in thin-film transistors for switching applications.
  • The preparation of light-emitting cadmium that is activated by electron beams. These phosphors are utilized in color displays, X-ray instruments, luminescent dials, fluorescent lamps, and cathode-ray tubes.
  • Helium–cadmium lasers are a common source of blue or ultraviolet laser light. Lasers at wavelengths of 325, 354, and 442 nm are made using this gain medium; They are notably used in fluorescence microscopy as well as various laboratory uses requiring laser light at these wavelengths.
  • Cadmium selenide quantum dots emit bright luminescence under UV excitation (He-Cd laser, for example). 
  • The color of this luminescence can be green, yellow, or red depending on the particle size. Colloidal solutions of those particles are used for imaging biological tissues and solutions with a fluorescence microscope.

Nuclear Industry

  • Cadmium is used in the control rods of nuclear reactors, acting as a very effective neutron deactivator to control neutron flux in nuclear fission.
  • When cadmium rods are inserted in the core of a nuclear reactor, cadmium absorbs neutrons, preventing them from creating additional fission events, thus controlling the amount of reactivity.
  • Silver-indium-cadmium alloys are utilized as control rods in some pressurized water nuclear reactors, and cadmium sheet is used for nuclear shielding because of its high neutron absorption characteristics.

Electrochemistry

  • Cadmium is used as electroplating which is used in the aircraft industry to reduce the corrosion of steel components.
  • A limitation of cadmium plating is the hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength steels from the electroplating process. Therefore, steel parts of heated to tensile strength above 1300 MPa should be coated by special low-embrittlement cadmium electroplating processes.

Polymer industry

  • Cadmium salts of organic acids also have been used as polymerization catalysts in the production of a wide variety of organic compounds as ethylating agents and as antiwear additives.
  • Diethyl cadmium is a polymerization catalyst for the production of vinyl chloride, vinyl acetate, and methyl methacrylate.
  • Added with titanium tetrachloride, cadmium catalyzes the polymerization of the respective monomers to form polyethylene and a highly crystalline polypropylene suitable for filaments, textiles, glues, and coatings.

Electronics

  • Cadmium is used as n-type semiconductor in nanotechnology due to its malleability and ductility properties. 
  • CdSe is used in various applications such as the manufacturing of industrial paints and batteries.
  • HgCdTe detectors are sensitive to mid-infrared light and are used in some motion detectors.
  • Cadmium sulfide, cadmium selenide, and cadmium telluride are used in some photodetectors and solar cells.

Laboratory Uses

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Uses of Cadmium in Different Industry

Cadmium chloride uses

CdCl2 or cadmium chloride has a CCP lattice structure consisting of octahedral geometry around Cd2+ ions. Let us focus some uses of the cadmium chloride.

The uses of cadmium chloride in different industries are listed below-

  • Cadmium chloride is used for the preparation of cadmium sulfide, used as “cadmium yellow”, a brilliant-yellow stable inorganic pigment.

CdCl2 + H2S → CdS + 2 HCl

  • Anhydrous CdCl2 can be used for the preparation of organocadmium compounds of the type R2Cd, where R is an aryl or a primary alkyl. These were once used in the synthesis of ketones from acyl chlorides.
  • Cadmium chloride is used for photocopying, dyeing, and electroplating.

Conclusion

Cadmium is a d-block element and it is a variety of uses in different industries. But now Zn based catalyst is used because they are more reactive and cost efficient.