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This section provides an overview for rubidium as well as their applications and principles. Also, please take a look at the list of 17 rubidium manufacturers and their company rankings. Here are the top-ranked rubidium companies as of December, 2024: 1.Inorganic Ventures, 2.American Elements, 3.Stanford Advanced Materials.
Table of Contents
Rubidium is an alkali metal with an atomic number of 37 and an atomic weight of 85.4678. Discovered by Bunsen and Kirchhoff in Germany in 1861, it's relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, though rarely found in ore form. Rubidium is typically obtained as a byproduct of refining lithium and is designated as a hazardous material for its spontaneous combustibility.
Rubidium strengthens glass and enhances its electrical insulation properties, primarily mixed with glass as rubidium carbonate (Rb2CO3). Its applications include use in cathode ray tubes and atomic clocks, though its commercial and industrial uses are limited. Another application is in dating materials, utilizing the Rubidium87 to Strontium87 ratio to determine the materials' age from their crystallization time.
A soft, silvery-white metal, rubidium exhibits a dark red color in flame reactions, similar to potassium. It has a low melting point of 39°C and a boiling point of 688°C, with a gaseous state that appears blue. Sharing properties with other alkali metals, Rubidium has the second lowest electronegativity among nonradioactive alkali elements and a low ionization energy of 406 kJ/mol. In compounds, its valence is +1, and Rubidium ions are readily taken up by plant and animal cells.
At room temperature, rubidium has a density of 1.532 g/cm3 and adopts a body-centered cubic structure. Its electron configuration is [Kr] 5s1. Due to its large ionic radius, rubidium falls into the category of incompatible elements, which are not easily incorporated into the crystals of rock-forming minerals.
Rubidium is more reactive than potassium and sodium, capable of spontaneously combusting in air and quickly oxidizing to form peroxide (Rb2O2) and superoxide (RbO2). It reacts violently with halogens and water, producing hydrogen gas that can ignite and explode. Rubidium can also form alloys with potassium, sodium, cesium, calcium, and gold, and amalgamate with mercury.
The 23rd most abundant element in the Earth's crust, rubidium is found in ores such as leucite, carnallite, pollucite, and zinnwaldite, with concentrations up to 1%. Lithia mica contains 0.3 to 3.5% rubidium, making it a commercial source. Seawater averages 125 μg/L of Rubidium, less than potassium but more than cesium. Major sources include rubidium microcline on the island of Elba, Italy, and porphyritic deposits at Burnick Lake, Canada.
Annually, 2-4 tons of Rubidium compounds are produced. Separation from potassium allows for the production of pure rubidium alum through fractional crystallization from rubidium cesium alum.
There are 24 known isotopes of Rubidium, including the stable isotope 85Rb and the radioactive isotope 87Rb, with natural abundances of 72.2% and 27.8%, respectively. 87Rb, with a half-life of 4.88 x 1010 years, is used for dating as it decays to stable 87Sr. 82Rb, produced from 82Sr decay, has a half-life of 1.273 minutes and is used in positron emission tomography of the heart.
*Including some distributors, etc.
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Inorganic Ventures, established in 1985, is a manufacturer and supplier specializing in producing quality inorganic standards for analytical testing. The company manufacturers a comprehensive range of certified reference materials used in various applications, including environmental, pharmaceutical, and industrial testing. Inorganic Ventures is devoted to delivering accurate standards that meet the stringent requirements of laboratories and industries. With a customer-centric approach, the company aims to provide solutions that add to the accuracy and credibility of analytical results.
American Elements was founded in 1997 in California and currently has research and production facilities in Utah, Mexico, China, and the United Kingdom. AE manufactures and distributes advanced materials from a catalog of over 30,000 products for bulk industrial use as well as small scale laboratory use. AE also provides testing and analyses services including spectroscopy along with structural, thermal, and electrical analyses. AE holds sustainable development as a core corporate value and is committed to work to protect the health of the environment.
PerkinElmer Inc., founded in 1937, is an American manufacturer headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, specializing in laboratory technology and management. The company's product offerings include analysis and characterization instruments, software, and consumables. Such offerings cover chromatography, mass spectrometry, molecular and atomic spectroscopy. They also provide immunoassay and food quality analyzers, as well as the simultaneous thermal analyzer (STA). These products find applications in various industries, such as biopharmaceuticals, food safety, lithium battery, and water resource management. PerkinElmer also offers OneSource Laboratory Services, providing knowledge, application, and service solutions for scientific laboratories. Additionally, their LABStartUp program supports new laboratories with instrumentation, consumables, and funding.
ESPI Metals, established in 1950 and headquartered in Ashland, Oregon, is an American manufacturer specializing in high-purity metals, metal compounds, and alloys. The company’s offerings cover 70 elements and alloys from the periodic table in forms of chips and pieces, discs, foils and sheets, as well as wires and rods. Other forms include ingots, pellets and shots, and powder. Additionally, the company provides cleansing agents branded as DeContam, designed for the aerospace and nuclear sectors The company serves clients in the aerospace, defense, education, green energy, and medical technology. Notable customers include General Electric, Harvard Medical School, and the Alberta Research Council.
Spectrum Chemical MFG Corp. was founded in 1971, is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and has facilities in Gardena, California. Spectrum is a fine chemical manufacturing company with an emphasis on USP, NF, FCC, BP, EP, JP, and ACS grade products, and is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Spectrum primarily serves the analytical, biopharmaceutical, food & beverage, personal care, and pharmaceutical chemicals industries. Spectrum has 4 product segments which are chemicals, equipment, supplies, and safety.
Stanford Advanced Materials was established in 1994 in Lake Forest, California to provide rare-earth products for research and development purposes. Stanford Advanced Materials serves many industries ranging from automotive to fashion to energy to research to sports to textiles. Stanford Advanced Materials manufactures and distributes purified metals, ceramics, composite materials including strips, plates, rods, wires, and bars, as well as laboratory equipment and optical equipment including crystals, lenses, splitters, and windows.
READE was originally established in Wolverhampton, England in 1773 as a pharmaceutical chemical and varnish manufacturer. Today READE is based in Riverside, Rhode Island in the United States and is an ISO 9001-certified distributor of specialty chemical solids. READE Advanced Materials offers a selection of hundreds of materials and compounds ranging from alloys in various forms to oxides, sulfides, individual elements, and specialty compounds. READE offers global sourcing, custom toll chemical processing, and custom toll packaging from metallurgical grade to pharmaceutical and food grade.
Ereztech was founded in 2010 and headquartered in Johns Creek, Georgia with manufacturing in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. Ereztech is a provider of organometallic precursor R&D and manufacturing services for global customers. Ereztech in ISO 9001:2015 certified. Ereztech offers over 1200 chemical compounds and materials including high purity silver sulfate and aluminum nitrate. In addition to these materials, Ereztech offers full-service production and packaging from synthesis samples to high-volume manufacturing quantities. This includes fully customized vessel cleaning procedures, detailed, custom workflow processes specific to each material and vessel, inventory management system, and beginning to end quality control.
Kanto Chemical Co. Inc., founded in 1944 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a reagent manufacturer with overseas affiliates in other countries, including China, France, USA, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Its product portfolio includes analytical reagents, ionic liquids, Iodine compounds, ultra-pure chemicals, and water analysis kits. The company is also developing regenerative medicine and genetics reagents and has over 50,000 products. It has several certifications, including ISO 9001, acquired in 1994, making it the first Japanese company in the reagent industry. Other certifications are ISO 14001, ISO 13485, and ISO/IEC 17025.
Apollo Scientific Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan’s Central Glass Europe Limited, is a research chemicals manufacturer and supplier founded in 1993 and headquartered in Bredbury, United Kingdom. Performing chemical syntheses in their Manchester-based laboratories, Apollo Scientific offers a selection of over 100,000 chemical products, from fluorinated compounds to non-fluorinated building blocks, for research and industry applications. Their life science products include antibiotics and buffers, as well as customized products for stem cell, molecular biology, and proteomics research. Additionally, Apollo Scientific offers spectroscopy products, such as consumables for infrared (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, as well as mass spectrometry standards.
Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd. is a Mumbai-based manufacturer and supplier of laboratory and fine chemicals, catering to industries such as pharmaceuticals, food, research, hospitals, and universities since its establishment in 1975. Their product range includes pH indicators, biological stains, HPLC solvents, high purity acids, and tetrazolium salts and derivatives. These products serve various applications like pH testing, cell and tissue staining, chemical separation, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The company has several certifications, such as ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and ISO 9001:2015.
Alfa Chemistry, founded in the year 2015 is based in New York, USA as a biotechnology company and manufacturer of graphene materials. Their product portfolio includes graphene oxide, CVD graphene film, graphene modification services, graphene series, graphene-like material, carbon nanomaterials, quantum dots, upcoming nanoparticles, and graphene transfer services. The company also provides services in custom manufacturing, and graphene analysis with quality assurance. The products are used in various industries which include energy, digital electronics, environment, textile, coating, and biomedical science.
GFS Chemicals was founded in 1928 and is based in Columbus, Ohio. GFS Chemicals is an ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturer as well as a supplier of specialty and fine chemicals, serving customers worldwide. GFS serves an array of industries including pharmaceutical, electronics, energy, fragrances, agrichemical, and specialty polymers. GFS Chemicals supplies over 8,600 chemicals in the United States, available in both small and large quantities. GFS Chemicals also offers Karl Fischer reagents, PPT/PPB trace analysis grade acids, turbidity standards, and other high-quality materials.
Strem Chemicals, Inc, founded in 1964, is an American manufacturer and supplier of high-purity specialty chemicals and materials, based in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Acquired by Ascensus Specialties, another American chemical company in 2021, Strem offers a catalog of over 6,000 specialty products under the metal, inorganic, organometallic, and nanomaterial categories. Some of their diverse product offerings include metal catalysts for organic synthesis, metal carbonyls, metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) precursors. Strem serves global customers, particularly academic, governmental, and industrial research and development laboratories. Their products find applications in various industries, including microelectronics, chemicals, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
Merck, started in 1668 and based in Darmstadt, Germany, is a supplier of solutions and services for research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical and biotechnological drug therapies. The company serves the life science industry and has a broad portfolio of 300,000 products, including biopharmaceutical manufacturing, industrial microbiology, reagent, life science research, and water purification products. It is available in 66 countries, brings together six brands, and has several ISO certifications, including ISO 13485, ISO 14001, ISO 13485, and ISO 50001.
Founded in 1981, Central Drug House Ltd. serves the scientific community via manufacturing and marketing a library of over 9,000 products to laboratory fine chemicals and dehydrated culture media with emphasis on purity and service. Examples are acids & bases, adsorbents, disinfectants, indicator papers, oils, and solvents. CDH provides bio chemicals, research chemicals, laboratory reagents, various solvents, stains & indicators, and dehydrated culture media. CDH is ISO 9001 certified and CDHs’ products are in compliance with specifications of IP, BP, USP, and EP standards.
GNH India, based in Mumbai, India, is a distributor of pharmaceutical products. The company caters to the whole spectrum of pharmaceutical trade starting from wholesale, tender supplies, orphan drugs, name patient access, biologics and vaccines. It sources from over 60 countries offering over 2,03,000 product lines covering original brands and true generic. It also provides contract manufacturing services for generic medicines and validated cold chain shipment services. The company has certified quality management and has acquired several certifications including ISO 9001:2015 for risk management criteria and WHO GSDP for preserved quality of pharmaceutical products and good distributive practices.
Ranking as of December 2024
Derivation Method| Rank | Company | Click Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inorganic Ventures |
15.2%
|
| 2 | American Elements |
14.0%
|
| 3 | Stanford Advanced Materials |
11.6%
|
| 4 | ESPI Metals |
8.5%
|
| 5 | Merck |
7.9%
|
| 6 | PerkinElmer Inc. |
6.7%
|
| 7 | Alfa Chemistry |
4.9%
|
| 8 | Strem Chemicals, Inc |
4.3%
|
| 9 | Ereztech LLC |
4.3%
|
| 10 | Reade Advanced Materials |
4.3%
|
Derivation Method
The ranking is calculated based on the click share within the rubidium page as of December 2024. Click share is defined as the total number of clicks for all companies during the period divided by the number of clicks for each company.Number of Employees
Newly Established Company
Company with a History
*Including some distributors, etc.
*Including some distributors, etc.
| Country | Number of Companies | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
|
United States of America
|
8 | 61.5% |
|
India
|
2 | 15.4% |
|
Japan
|
1 | 7.7% |
|
United Kingdom
|
1 | 7.7% |
| United States | 1 | 7.7% |
