Vanadium is an important rare metal element that continues to be listed as a critical metal by major economies around the world. It is widely used in many important fields of the national economy, such as steel, non-ferrous metals, chemical engineering, optics, electronics, energy storage, medicine, atomic energy, and so on. At the same time, vanadium is the most green valuable metal, and its applications in steel, chemistry, new materials, and new energy have extremely significant manufacturing "green" functions and effects.

In the context of "carbon neutrality" and "carbon emission reduction", the green value of vanadium as an "energy" metal is increasingly apparent! The commercial application of vanadium in solar photothermal conversion (vanadium titanium coated solar photothermal panels), new rare earth light sources, lithium-ion batteries, sodium ion battery positive and negative electrode materials, functional optical thin films, hydrogen storage metal materials, especially in clean, safe, and long-term energy storage of all vanadium flow batteries, has won solid foundation support and hot attention for vanadium to enter the green "energy" metal sequence!

(Source: Chen Donghui, "Opportunities and Challenges of the Vanadium Industry under the Background of Carbon Peak")

★ Application in steel

Steel containing vanadium is like a tiger adding wings. Simply adding a few percent of vanadium to the steel can greatly increase its elasticity, strength, excellent wear and tear resistance, and resistance to high temperatures and extreme cold. Vanadium steel has a tighter structure, higher toughness, elasticity, and mechanical strength than ordinary steel. Vanadium steel armor piercing shells can penetrate 40 centimeters thick steel plates. Due to its high strength, toughness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, vanadium steel is widely used in engineering construction such as oil (gas) pipelines, buildings, bridges, steel rails, and pressure vessels.

★ Application in alloys

Vanadium and titanium form an important metal alloy Ti-6A1-4 V, used in aircraft engines, aerospace cabin skeletons, missiles, hydrofoils and introducers for warships, steam turbine blades, rocket engine shells, and more. In addition, vanadium alloys are also used in magnetic materials, hard alloys, superconducting materials (such as V3Ga) and nuclear reactor materials.

★ Vanadium battery

Vanadium batteries are currently the most promising high-capacity energy storage system. Compared with other batteries, it has these characteristics: it can increase the amount of electrolyte at will to increase the battery capacity; during the charging and discharging period, vanadium batteries only undergo liquid-phase reactions, which are not as likely to cause solid phase changes such as interruptions or short circuits in battery current as ordinary batteries; the battery has a long shelf life and storage life; can discharge 100% without damaging the battery.

★ Application in the chemical industry

Vanadium compounds can be used as various catalysts, ceramic colorants, developers, dryers, and raw materials for producing high-purity vanadium oxide or ferrovanadium.

★ Applications in other fields

The colors of vanadium salts are colorful, including green, red, black, and yellow. The green ones are as green as jade, while the black ones are like thick ink. These colorful vanadium compounds are made into bright pigments: they are added to glass to make stained glass; it can also be used to manufacture various inks; new efficient and environmentally friendly coatings, etc. Vanadium dioxide thin films and ultrafine powders can be applied in fields such as electro-optical switching devices, solar control materials, coatings, and thermistors. Vanadium is used in medicine to regulate blood sugar levels in the human body; vanadium can also improve myocardial function and have a significant therapeutic effect on hypertension.