Gallium

Gallium & Gallium Alloys

We are a refiner and supplier of gallium materials which include high-purity metals, gallium-based alloys, and gallium compounds. We also offer reclaim processing of gallium metal and compounds.

Gallium Features & Benefits

Without gallium, technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cellphone service would not exist. Gallium arsenide chips are ubiquitous in wireless communications, as are gallium nitride chips in chargers and electric vehicles.

In addition to semiconductors, other applications use gallium in metallic, alloyed, and compound forms. The interest in gallium, its alloys, and compounds stem from their low-melting points and wetting properties. First used as a non-toxic replacement for mercury, liquid metals containing gallium are now being diligently researched for new applications, from printable electronics to novel thermal interface materials.

Gallium

Gallium is most readily recognized for its role in compound semiconductors, where it is used to build radio frequency integrated circuits, LEDs, and quantum dots, utilizing the electronic and optical properties that GaAs, GaN, GaP, and other materials provide.

In compound form, gallium plays an important role in the display industry, where gallium oxide, combined with indium and zinc oxides is sputtered onto the backplanes of displays to perform IGZO thin-film transistors.

Another important gallium compound is gallium trichloride which is used to form the electrolyte in the specialty battery chemistry (lithium thionyl chloride) that enables high-temperature performance.

Indium Corporation supports all these various technologies by supplying these products:

  • Gallium metal with 4N and higher purities
  • Gallium-based alloys: liquid at low temperatures (close to and below room temperature), for example, Indalloy®300E (78.6Ga/21.4In – eutectic, MP at 11°C) and Indalloy®51E (66.5Ga/20.5In/13Sn – eutectic, MP at 15.7°C).
  • Gallium compounds, such as gallium chloride and gallium oxide.

In addition, we also offer a reclaim program for end-of-process scrap.

For example, we reclaim gallium metal from IGZO sputter targets that have reached their end-of-life in display manufacturing, and the reclaimed metal can be processed into gallium oxide to close the reclaim loop.

Gallium Resources

Gallium is co-mined with aluminum where it appears as a constituent in the bauxite ore. It is found in most bauxite mines, located all around the world. Gallium needs to be separated from the ore, and subsequently refined to 4N (99.99%) purity for commercial purposes. To find out more, request our whitepaper on the Availability of Gallium and Indium.

General Properties of Gallium

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°C °F g/cm3 g/mol #
Melting Point 30 86      
Boiling Point 2,400 4,352      
Density     5.90    
Atomic Weight       69.7  
Atomic Number         31
Indalloy® Number         14
Chart of Estimated Viscosity of Gallium Alloys
Chart of the Density of Gallium
Chart of the Vapor Pressure versus Temperature
Chart of the Thermal Conductivity of Gallium

Properties of Common Gallium Alloys:

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Indalloy®
Numbes
Liquidus
(°C)
Solidus
(°C)
Composition Density
(g/cc3)
Thermal
Conductivity
(W/mK)
Electrical
Resistivity
(10*Ω⋅m)
46L 7.6 6.5 61.0Ga/25.0In/13.0Sn/1.0Zn 6.50 15* 33*
51E 10.7 10.7 66.5Ga/20.5In/13.0Sn 6.32 16.5(1) 28.9(1)
51 16.3 10.7 62.5Ga/21.5In/16.0Sn 6.50 16.5(1) 28.9(1)
60 15.7 15.7 75.5Ga/24.5In 6.35 20* 29.4(2)
77 25.0 15.7 95Ga/5In 6.15 25* 20*
14 29.78 29.78 100Ga 5.90 28.1(3) 14.85(4)

*Estimated

(1) Geratherm Medical AG, Material Safety Data Sheet, 93/112/EC, 2004.)
(2) Michael D. Dickey, et al., Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn): A Liquid Metal Alloy for the Formation of Stable Structures in Microchannels at Room Temperature, Advanced Functional Materials, 2008, 18, 1097-1104.
(3) C.Y.Ho, et al., Thermal Conductivity of the Elements, Journal of Physical Chemical Reference Data, Vol. 1. No. 2, 1972.
(4) Charles Kittle, Introduction to Solid State Physics, 7th Ed., Wiley and Sons, 1996.