Indium is an ingredient in some low-melting alloys used in sprinkler heads.
There’s no high-tech without it.
Indium is soft and silvery-white. It conducts electricity and melts at a low temperature (for a metal) which makes it indispensable in manufacturing—in fact, indium is in the circuitry of almost every computer or digital device. Its major use is in the transparent conductive coatings in flat-screen TVs and monitors, portable games and MP3 players—and the solar panels that generate power from the sun’s rays. Any time you look at a digital display, you’re probably looking through an invisible coating of indium. And it starts out as sphalerite in the ground.
Indium is soft and silvery-white. It conducts electricity and melts at a low temperature (for a metal) which makes it indispensable in manufacturing—in fact, indium is in the circuitry of almost every computer or digital device. Its major use is in the transparent conductive coatings in flat-screen TVs and monitors, portable games and MP3 players—and the solar panels that generate power from the sun’s rays. Any time you look at a digital display, you’re probably looking through an invisible coating of indium. And it starts out as sphalerite in the ground.
