Element 31 · Post-Transition Metal
Gallium
A metal that melts in your hand — gallium is the silvery liquid that powers LED lights and semiconductor chips.
Element Facts
SYMBOL
Ga
ATOMIC NO.
31
ATOMIC WEIGHT
69.72
CATEGORY
Post-Transition Metal
PERIOD
Period 4
GROUP
Group 13
Background
Gallium is one of the few elements whose existence was predicted before its discovery. In 1871, Dmitri Mendeleev described a missing element he called eka-aluminium and forecast its properties with remarkable accuracy. Four years later, in 1875, French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran detected gallium spectroscopically in zinc ore from the Pyrenees, then isolated it by electrolysis. He named it Gallia, the Latin name for France.
For decades gallium was a laboratory curiosity. Its low melting point (just 29.8°C — it melts in the palm of your hand) and rarity made it a novelty rather than a useful material. Small quantities were used in high-temperature thermometers as a mercury substitute.
The 20th century transformed gallium into a strategic material. The development of compound semiconductors — particularly gallium arsenide (GaAs) in the 1960s and 1970s — opened up applications in radar, mobile communications, and eventually LED lighting. Gallium nitride (GaN) became the backbone of blue LEDs (Nobel Prize, 2014) and is now central to power electronics and 5G infrastructure.
The Basics
Gallium is element 31, a silvery post-transition metal with the unusual property of melting at just 29.8°C — in your warm hand. Discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875 (its existence had been predicted by Mendeleev). Gallium is recovered as a by-product of zinc and aluminium production. China now restricts gallium exports as a strategic material.
Industrial Uses
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors in LEDs, solar cells, smartphone radio chips, and high-frequency electronics (5G base stations and military radar). Galinstan (gallium-indium-tin alloy) is a non-toxic mercury substitute in some thermometers.
Scrap Viability
Why QuickStop Metals doesn’t buy Gallium:
Gallium is recovered from electronic semiconductors only by specialist processors (such as 5N Plus and Indium Corporation), not from general scrap. The metal exists in commercial products only at parts-per-million concentrations, far below economic recovery threshold for general scrap operations. There is no consumer scrap market for gallium.
What It's Worth
Gallium metal has traded at $400–800/kg over 2021–2026, surging after Chinese export controls in mid-2023.