Kezia Sasitharan
Abundant in the Universe,
rare in the Earth’s crust;
My volatile hydrides disperse.
And escape as gas, into space and are lost.
Commonly found in mines of gold,
As gold telluride;
If humans to me get accidentally exposed,
I metabolize as dimethyl telluride.
Silvery-white when crystalline,
And when amorphous, black brown;
Fungi can use me as Telluro-cysteine,
My polymorphs sparked a gold rush in the mining town.
Principally sourced from copper refining,
I love forming interesting Zintl ions;
My native crystals – lustrous and shining,
When combined with Selenium, I form interchalcogen cations.
Used in machinable parts,
I make alloys- strong;
In nature, I assemble on quartz,
In industry, I enable products live-long.
My biggest contribution,
Is the difference I made in solar panel advancement;
Cadmium telluride- the solution,
To stability and efficiency enhancement.
Cd-Zn-Te X-Ray detectors,
And a whole new range of thermo-electric device capabilities;
Acousto-optic modulators,
Thus keep expanding my abilities.
I am atomic number 52-Tellurium,
And this is my story;
Me and my best friends – Cadmium and Selenium,
On our path to revolutionize semiconductor Industry.
About the Author
I’m Kezia and I’m a final year PhD student in the Foster Group in Chemistry at the University of Sheffield working on new generation 2D nano-materials for organic photovoltaics. When I’m not testing new solar cell prototypes, I love to sing, cook and travel.