Uses of some common metals

Gold and silver are popularly used for making jewellery because of their lustrous
nature.
Thin wires of gold and silver are woven in sarees and other dress materials to
make expensive clothing.
Gold and silver used in dentistry for filling cavities in teeth.
Gold is used fir making coins which are very expensive.
Silver is used for making electrical purifiers.
Salts of silver are used for making photographic plates.
Silver nitrate is used in making artificial rains.
Silver is also used in making high quality glass mirrors.
Copper is used for making wires, vessels, electric gadgets, Statues and coins. It
is also used in making alloys like brass, bronze, etc.
Iron is used construction of building, sailing ships, Automobiles, railway bridges,
railway line, etc.
Tin is used for tinning food cans, making alloys, etc.
Lead is used for making lead acid batteries, sanitary pipes, making fusible alloys.
Lead is also used as tip covering of the bullet, used for covering tin roofs in cold
countries.
Zinc is used in galvanization process. And also used for making alloys, etc.
Aluminium is used for making utensils, parts of aircrafts, food packaging, etc.
Magnesium is used in fire works, used as a fuse wire in thermit welding. It is also
used for making alloys.
Mercury is used as thermometric liquid in laboratory and chemical themometers.

Uses of some common non- metals

The main function of nitrogen is to moderate the activity of oxygen. Nitrogen is an

essential constituent of proteins, nucleic acids like DNA and RNA, vitamins, and
chlorophyll.
The non-metals, nitrogen and phosphorous are used in fertilisers to enhance the
growth of plants.
Oxygen makes up 21 percent of the air. It is an essential constituent of
carbohydrates, proteins, fats and nucleic acids.
Oxygen is found in air, in combined form as carbon dioxide, and in the earths
crust as carbonates, sulphates and nitrates.
Plants and animals use atmospheric oxygen during respiration and release the
same during photosynthesis. Fossil fuels require oxygen for combustion.

Chlorine is used for purifying water. It is also used in manufcturing of

insecticides, pesticides such as DDT and BHC. It is also used in the manufacture
ofhydrochloric acid.
Small quantity of iodine is essential for the properfunctioning of iodine. It is used
to prepare silver iodide salt, which is used for making photographic films.
A solution of iodine and alcohol is called as tincture iodine. It is applied on
wounds as an antiseptic.

Graphite is used as,

Pencil lead

Electrode of electrolytic cells

Dry lubricant

In making heat resistant crucibles

In Nuclear reactors.
Uses of noble gases:

Helium is not inflammable, and has a very low density. That is why it is used to fill
weather balloons and airships. You know that helium has the lowest boiling point
among all the elements in group eighteen. It has the lowest boiling point of any
element, just 4.2 K. Hence, liquid helium is used as a cryogenic agent to perform
experiments at very low temperatures.

Liquid helium finds use in cryoscopy to obtain the very low temperatures required
for superconductivity. Liquid helium is used to cool the superconducting magnets
used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers.

It is used as the cooling gas in gas-cooled nuclear reactors, and as a flow gas in
gas-liquid chromatography.

Helium is used to dilute dioxygen in the cylinders carried by sea divers.

Argon is widely used to provide an inert atmosphere in laboratory apparatus, and

for metallurgical processes, such as in welding stainless steel, aluminium and
magnesium.