The present supplement volume, A 7, is the first of a triad, A 5 to A 7, dealing with the chemical reactions of metallic tungsten. It describes the reactions with inorganic and organic compounds, except for formation reactions of organotungsten compounds. Volume A 6, to appear at the beginning of 1988, will cover the reactions of tungsten with metallic elements. Volume A 5, in preparation for 1988/89, will contain the reactions with nonmetallic elements and, in addition, cover the electrochemistry of tungsten. With the appearance of this last volume, the present knowledge of the chemistry of tungsten will be compiled in more than 1000 pages. In the Gmelin main volume on tungsten, published in 1933, the presentation of the information then available on the same subject required less than 6 pages. This enormous increase in relevant data over the last fifty years is stupefying, considering the fact that tungsten is a rather inert metal which is resistant to most chemical agents up to high temperatures.With afew exceptions,in fact, it was not so much the reactions of bulk tungsten which attracted the interest of the experimenters as the reactions taking place at its surface. This comes about for practical as well as scientific reasons.

The present volume continues the description of the chemical reactions of eiemental tungsten started with "Tungsten" Suppl. Vol. A 7. It covers the reactions with the metallic elements from zinc to actinoids. The treatment includes phase diagrams, bulk reactions, and surface processes which again are of outstanding importance in most systems. The raader is referred to the introductory remarks on pp. X/XI. Frankfurt am Main Ernst Koch November 1987 Introductory Remarks Abbreviations In order not to overload the text, the following abbreviations are sometimes used without definitions in the present volume, in addition to the abbreviations usual in the Gmelin Handbook. a. c. alternating current AE Auger electron Auger electron spectroscopy(ic) or spectrum AES bcc body-centered cubic CPD contact potential difference counts per second cps d. c. direct current DTA differential thermoanalysis Fermi Ievel EF EI electron impact ELS electron energy loss spectroscopy or spectrum EMF, emf electromotive force fcc face-centered cubic FE field emission field electron (emission) microscope(ic) FEM FES field emission spectroscopy FIM field ion microscope(ic) F-N Fowler-Nordheim hcp hexagonal close-packed 6 L Langmuir=1·10- Torr·s LEED low energy electron diffraction monolayer ML PES photoelectron spectroscopy PSD photon-stimulated desorption RHEED reflection high energy electron diffraction room temperature RT SI secondary ion SIMS secondary ion mass spectrometry TDS thermal desorption spectroscopy(ic) or spectrum TE thermionic emission total energy distribution TED UHV ultra-high vacuum UPS ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy(ic) or spectrum XPS X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(ic) or spectrum Gmelin Handbock WSuppl. Vol.

Why does someone write a book about Tungsten? There are several reasons and precedents for this, the most important of which is that the last book on tungsten was written more than 20 years ago, in 1977, by St. W H. Yih and Ch T. Wang. During the intervening period there have been many new scientific and technological developments and innova tions, so it was not only our opinion but the view of many other members of the "tungsten family" that it was time to start writing a new book about tungsten. Preparations of the new book began in 1994. further impetus to the project was provided by the realization that in spite of this new knowledge having been presented at seminars or published in the technical press, a general acknowledgement of it by the majority of technicians and scientists is still far from being realized. It is our hope that this book will significantly contribute to a broader acceptance of recent scientific and technological innovations. An important prerequisite for such a project is the availability of a recently retired, experienced person willing to devote his time and talents to the tedious part of the exercise.

Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals–also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded. In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks’ extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his “Uncle Tungsten,” whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes–in his own home laboratory. Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.

The present supplement volume, A 7, is the first of a triad, A 5 to A 7, dealing with the chemical reactions of metallic tungsten. It describes the reactions with inorganic and organic compounds, except for formation reactions of organotungsten compounds. Volume A 6, to appear at the beginning of 1988, will cover the reactions of tungsten with metallic elements. Volume A 5, in preparation for 1988/89, will contain the reactions with nonmetallic elements and, in addition, cover the electrochemistry of tungsten. With the appearance of this last volume, the present knowledge of the chemistry of tungsten will be compiled in more than 1000 pages. In the Gmelin main volume on tungsten, published in 1933, the presentation of the information then available on the same subject required less than 6 pages. This enormous increase in relevant data over the last fifty years is stupefying, considering the fact that tungsten is a rather inert metal which is resistant to most chemical agents up to high temperatures. With afew exceptions, in fact, it was not so much the reactions of bulk tungsten which attracted the interest of the experimenters as the reactions taking place at its surface. This comes about for practical as well as scientific reasons.

This book embraces the entire range of problems associated with phase equilibria in “tungsten – carbon” binary system and related ternary systems, nonstoichiometry, disorder and order in different tungsten carbides, electronic and crystal structure of these carbides. The main application of tungsten carbides is constituent in hardmetals for cutting tools. In the last 20 years, the most active efforts were made in synthesis and application of nanocrystalline tungsten carbide for the production of nanostructured hardmetals. The present book describes in detail different methods for production of nanocrystalline tungsten carbide. The peculiarities of sintering of Co hardmetals from nanocrystalline powders having different particle sizes are discussed. Materials scientists using tungsten carbide to create novel superhard and tough materials will find this book particularly useful.