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The essentials

Description 

Here is a brief description of lead.

• Standard state: solid at 298 K
• Colour: bluish white
• Classification: Metallic
• Availability:

  lead is available in several forms including foil, granules, ingots, powder, rod, shot, sheet, and wire. Small and large samples of lead foil, sheet, and wire (and lead alloy in ingot form) can be purchased from Advent Research Materials via their web catalogue.

Lead is a bluish-white lustrous metal. It is very soft, highly malleable, ductile, and a relatively poor conductor of electricity. It is very resistant to corrosion but tarnishes upon exposure to air. Lead pipes bearing the insignia of Roman emperors, used as drains from the baths, are still in service. Alloys include pewter and solder. Tetraethyl lead (PbEt₄) is still used in some grades of petrol (gasoline) but is being phased out on environmental grounds.

Lead isotopes are the end products of each of the three series of naturally occurring radioactive elements.

Nearing Zero cartoon included by kind permission of Nick Kim.

Isolation

There is usually little need to make lead metal in the laboratory as it is so cheap and readily available. Lead is isolated from the sulphide, PbS. The process involves burning in a restricted air flow followed by reduction of the resulting oxide PbO with carbon.

PbS + ³/₂O₂ → PbO + SO₂

PbO + C → Pb + CO

PbO + CO → Pb + CO₂

This gives lead usually contaminated with metals such as antimony, arsenic, copper, gold, silver, tin, and zinc. A fairly complex process is used to strip out these impurities.

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