Tin is a chemical element; it has symbolSn (fromLatin stannum) and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force,[10] and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, the so-called "tin cry" can be heard as a result of twinning in tin crystals.[11]
Quick Facts Allotropes, Standard atomic weight Ar°(Sn) ...
It has two main allotropes: at room temperature, the stable allotrope is β-tin, a silvery-white, malleable metal; at low temperatures it is less dense grey α-tin, which has the diamond cubic structure. Metallic tin does not easily oxidize in air and water.
The first tin alloy used on a large scale was bronze, made of 1⁄8tin and 7⁄8copper (12.5% and 87.5% respectively), from as early as 3000BC. After 600BC, pure metallic tin was produced. Pewter, which is an alloy of 85–90% tin with the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth, and sometimes lead and silver, has been used for flatware since the Bronze Age. In modern times, tin is used in many alloys, most notably tin-lead soft solders, which are typically 60% or more tin, and in the manufacture of transparent, electrically conducting films of indium tin oxide in optoelectronic applications. Another large application is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel. Because of the low toxicity of inorganic tin, tin-plated steel is widely used for food packaging as "tin cans". Some organotin compounds can be extremely toxic.