The two world wars made people realize the important role of
molybdenum in the military. After the war, the global annual output of molybdenum increased from 100,000 tons to more than 200,000 tons today. While molybdenum has won the reputation of "war metal", it has been applied more and more widely, especially playing an increasingly important role in high-tech fields such as nuclear energy and medical treatment.
In 2018, scientists from the Moscow institute of engineering physics in Russia published a study on the protective casing of nuclear fuel. They used molybdenum alloy instead of the existing
zirconium alloy as the protective shell of nuclear fuel, which can improve the safety of nuclear power plants.
Molybdenum is also used in medical practice. For example, technetium-99 is the most widely used radioactive contrast agent, but technetium-99 can only be prepared in one way, which is molybdenum 99 decay. Molybdenum 99 is a radioactive isotope of molybdenum with a half-life of 2.75 days. After that half-life, molybdenum 99 decays into technetium 99.The half-life of molybdenum 99 is ideal, which not only ensures the stability of molybdenum atoms in the transportation from raw materials to medical facilities, but also ensures that the radioactivity of technetium 99 can be activated in a short time. If the half-life is too short, molybdenum atoms may produce the risk of radioactive radiation during transportation. If the half-life is too long, it will affect the efficiency of medical diagnosis.
