12. Commercial forms of germanium and derived products

Metal and alloys

Germanium is marketed as a polycrystalline metal with a purity of 99.9999%, or as a single-crystal metal. Germanium alloys are in limited use, with the exception of alloys with precious metals. Half of all Ge-M systems (where M is a metal) contain intermetallic compounds.

Germanium compounds

The refined metal is also transformed into germanium compounds.

• Halogenides

  GeCl ₄ tetrachloride is the base product from which germanes (germanium hydrides) are manufactured for solar cells, and must contain less than 0.5 to 5 ppb for each of the impurities V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn, and less than 10 ppm of HCl, OH, CH...