Atomic number 23

Vanadium

V
+ phase
− phase

Shells Orbitals 3d 4s

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23 electrons in 4 shells: 2, 8, 11, 2.

Shells are a teaching model: an electron does not travel on a ring at a fixed distance.

Category: Transition metal
Period: 4
Group: 5
Block: d
Standard atomic weight: 50.942(1) Da
Electron configuration: [Ar] 3d³ 4s²
Phase at 25 °C: solid
Melting point: 1910 °C
Boiling point: 3407 °C
Density: 6.0 g/cm³
Electronegativity (Pauling): 1.63
Discovered: 1801, Andrés Manuel del Río

Neighbours in the table

Ti Cr

Vanadium was discovered twice. Andrés Manuel del Río reported it in 1801, the year Los Alamos and Jefferson Lab both give, and called it erythronium. IUPAC’s atomic-weights commission (CIAAW) traces that name to a plant with many-coloured flowers. The claim did not last, and three accounts give three reasons. Los Alamos blames a French chemist who wrongly judged the element impure chromium. Jefferson Lab tells of a letter lost in a shipwreck and a later one from Paris disputing the find; CIAAW says del Río himself decided his lead sample held chromium.

Nils-Gabriel Sefström found the element again in 1830 while analysing iron from a Swedish mine, and CIAAW credits the discovery to him. He named it after Vanadis, a Scandinavian goddess, for its many brightly coloured compounds. Henry Enfield Roscoe reduced the chloride with hydrogen to get the metal, in 1867 by Los Alamos’s date and 1869 by CIAAW’s.

Its configuration, [Ar] 3d³ 4s², shells 2, 8, 11 and 2, gives five valence electrons, two 4s and three 3d. Ions lose 4s electrons first; losing all five leaves V⁵⁺ without d electrons. OpenStax calls the +5 oxidation state, a bookkeeping count assuming ionic bonds, vanadium’s most stable. Los Alamos lists oxidation states from +5 to −3, and OpenStax notes that its compounds change colour as the oxidation state changes.

Where it is found

PubChem’s record gives 120 milligrams of vanadium in a kilogram of crust and 2.5 × 10⁻³ milligrams in a litre of seawater. Los Alamos counts about 65 minerals that carry it, among them carnotite, roscoelite, vanadinite and patronite. Phosphate rock and some iron ores hold it too, meteorites carry small percentages, and certain crude oils contain it bound in organic complexes.

Earth’s mantle is short of vanadium compared with chondritic meteorites, according to IUPAC’s Periodic Table of the Elements and Isotopes on PubChem’s record. That source assumes that the missing share went into the core, and it names vanadium isotopes as a marker of how planetary cores formed.

The US Geological Survey estimates 2024 mine output at 100,000 metric tons of contained vanadium. China made 70,000, mostly from vanadium-bearing iron ore processed for steel, then Russia 21,000, South Africa 8,000 and Brazil 5,000. Vanadium is usually recovered as a byproduct or coproduct, so the survey warns that world resources above 63 million tons are no full guide to supply. In Utah, mining of uranium-bearing sandstone stopped in early 2020 and stayed shut through 2024.

Why it matters

Los Alamos puts about 80 per cent of vanadium production into steel, as ferrovanadium, an iron-vanadium alloy, or as a plain additive. It names rust-resistant steels and high-speed tool steels, and calls vanadium a carbide stabiliser. In the United States metallurgical uses took more than 90 per cent of reported consumption in 2024, the US Geological Survey says. Like most ferroalloys, the survey adds, vanadium follows the steel market, and China’s steel industry above all.

Beyond steel, the survey knows of no acceptable substitute for vanadium in aerospace titanium alloys. Los Alamos credits its structural strength and low cross-section for fission neutrons with its nuclear uses; Jefferson Lab says it does not readily absorb neutrons. Vanadium foil bonds titanium cladding onto steel, and Los Alamos mentions a superconductive magnet rated at 175,000 gauss.

Jefferson Lab calls V₂O₅ perhaps vanadium’s most useful compound. OpenStax classes vanadium(V) oxide as acidic, forming salts of the VO₄³⁻ ion, and calls oxides of 4+ metals amphoteric, while Los Alamos gives vanadium an amphoteric oxide. Vanadium oxide, OpenStax says, catalyses the making of 230 million tons of sulfuric acid a year worldwide. Transition metals suit catalysis, OpenStax explains, because they bind ligands, electron-pair donors, and shift between oxidation states. For the US survey, catalysts for sulfuric acid and maleic anhydride lead the non-metallurgical uses.

Properties

Properties of vanadium Standard atomic weights from IUPAC/CIAAW (abridged, 2024); other values from PubChem's periodic table, kelvin converted to °C.
Property	Value	Unit	Source
Atomic number	23
Standard atomic weight	50.942(1) Da	Da	IUPAC/CIAAW 2024
Melting point	1910 °C	°C	Los Alamos: 1910 °C
Boiling point	3407 °C	°C	Los Alamos: 3407 °C
Density	6.0 g/cm³	g/cm³
Electronegativity (Pauling)	1.63
Electron configuration	1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s² 3d³
Phase at 25 °C	solid

Safety

Vanadium metal in bar or sheet carries no hazard classification under GHS, the UN’s Globally Harmonized System: on PubChem’s record 431 of 452 reports, 95.4%, find none. Dust is the exception: large pieces do not burn but the fine powder can, and vanadium dust, usually the pentoxide, severely irritates the mucous membranes. Los Alamos still describes vanadium and its compounds as toxic. Workers who meet the powder will find its hazards set out in the PubChem Laboratory Chemical Safety Summary.

Questions

Why is vanadium added to steel?

Los Alamos says vanadium strengthens steel and protects it against corrosion, and calls it an important carbide stabiliser; about 80 per cent of production goes into steel. Much of it goes in as ferrovanadium, an alloy of iron and vanadium: Jefferson Lab puts the vanadium at 1 to 6 per cent, while the US Geological Survey prices a grade holding 78 to 82 per cent. Jefferson Lab lists car axles, crankshafts, springs and cutting tools among its uses.

Why are vanadium batteries used for energy storage?

Vanadium redox flow batteries are becoming a larger part of grid-scale energy storage, the US Geological Survey reports. The survey credits them with high safety and environmental friendliness, and with storing energy at large scale over medium and long periods. It also sets out the drawbacks: capital and running costs are high, and the supply of vanadium to make them from is limited.

Does the human body need vanadium?

No need has been shown. Haz-Map, quoted in PubChem's safety summary, calls vanadium a required mineral for some bacteria but not one known to be needed by humans. Under 2 per cent of swallowed vanadium is absorbed, the same entry says, and the kidneys remove most of what is. The Hazardous Substances Data Bank, in that summary, found the metal no irritant in a skin test, yet elsewhere lists vanadium as a primary skin irritant.

Is vanadium radioactive?

Only very slightly. Natural vanadium is two isotopes, vanadium-51 and vanadium-50; Los Alamos puts vanadium-50 at 0.24 per cent of the atoms and CIAAW at 0.250 per cent. Los Alamos gives vanadium-50 a half-life above 3.9 × 10¹⁷ years. The Atomic Mass Data Center (AMDC) evaluation on PubChem's record gives 2.71 × 10¹⁷ years, below that bound, and lists its decay as beta-plus at about 100 per cent, with a possible beta-minus branch.