Niobium is an effective microalloying element for steel, within which it forms niobium carbide and niobium nitride. These compounds improve the grain refining, and retard recrystallization and precipitation hardening. These effects in turn increase the toughness, strength, formability, and weldability. Within micro alloyed stainless steels, the niobium content is a small (less than 0.1%) but important addition to high strength low alloy steels that are widely used structurally in modern automobiles. These same niobium alloys are often used in pipeline construction.

Quantities of niobium are used in nickel-, cobalt-, and iron-based superalloys in proportions as great as 6.5% for such applications as jet engine components, gas turbines, rocket subassemblies, turbocharger systems, heat resisting, and combustion equipment. Niobium precipitates a hardening γ”-phase within the grain structure of the superalloy. One example superalloy is Inconel 718, consisting of roughly 50% nickel, 18.6% chromium, 18.5% iron, 5% niobium, 3.1% molybdenum, 0.9% titanium, and 0.4% aluminium. These superalloys are used, for example, in advanced airframe systems for the Gemini program. Another niobium alloy was used for the nozzle of the Apollo Service Module. Because niobium is oxidized at temperatures above 400 °C, a protective coating is necessary for these applications to prevent the alloy from becoming brittle.

C-103 alloy was developed in the early 1960s jointly by the Wah Chang Corporation and Boeing Co. DuPont, Union Carbide Corp., General Electric Co. and several other companies were developing Nb-base alloys simultaneously, largely driven by the Cold War and Space Race. It is composed of 89% niobium, 10% hafnium and 1% titanium and is used for liquid rocket thruster nozzles, such as the main engine of the Apollo Lunar Modules. The nozzle of the Merlin Vacuum series of engines developed by SpaceX for the upper stage of its Falcon 9 rocket is made from a Niobium alloy.

Niobium-germanium (Nb3Ge), niobium-tin (Nb3Sn), as well as the niobium-titanium alloys are used as a type II superconductor wire for superconducting magnets. These superconducting magnets are used in magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance instruments as well as in particle accelerators. For example, the Large Hadron Collider uses 600 tons of superconducting strands, while the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor uses an estimated 600 tonnes of Nb3Sn strands and 250 tonnes of NbTi strands. In 1992 alone, more than US$1 billion worth of clinical magnetic resonance imaging systems were constructed with niobium-titanium wire.

Electroceramics

Lithium niobate, which is a ferroelectric, is used extensively in mobile telephones and optical modulators, and for the manufacture of surface acoustic wave devices. It belongs to the ABO3 structure ferroelectrics like lithium tantalate and barium titanate. Niobium capacitors are available as alternative to tantalum capacitors,[78] but tantalum capacitors still predominate. Niobium is added to glass to attain a higher refractive index, making possible thinner and lighter corrective glasses.

Hypoallergenic applications: medicine and jewelry

Niobium and some niobium alloys are physiologically inert and hypoallergenic. For this reason, niobium is used in prosthetics and implant devices, such as pacemakers. Niobium treated with sodium hydroxide forms a porous layer that aids osseointegration.

Like titanium, tantalum, and aluminium, niobium can be heated and anodized (“reactive metal anodization”) to produce a wide array of iridescent colours for jewelry, where its hypoallergenic property is highly desirable.

Numismatics

A 150 Years Semmering Alpine Railway Coin made of niobium and silver.

Niobium is used as a precious metal in commemorative coins, often with silver or gold. For example, Austria produced a series of silver niobium euro coins starting in 2003; the colour in these coins is created by the diffraction of light by a thin anodized oxide layer. In 2012, ten coins are available showing a broad variety of colours in the centre of the coin: blue, green, brown, purple, violet, or yellow. Two more examples are the 2004 Austrian €25 150 Years Semmering Alpine Railway commemorative coin, and the 2006 Austrian €25 European Satellite Navigation commemorative coin. The Austrian mint produced for Latvia a similar series of coins starting in 2004, with one following in 2007. In 2011, the Royal Canadian Mint started production of a $5 sterling silver and niobium coin named Hunter’s Moon in which the niobium was selectively oxidized, thus creating unique finishes where no two coins are exactly alike.

Other

The arc-tube seals of high pressure sodium vapor lamps are made from niobium, sometimes alloyed with 1% of zirconium; niobium has a very similar coefficient of thermal expansion, matching the sintered alumina arc tube ceramic, a translucent material which resists chemical attack or reduction by the hot liquid sodium and sodium vapour contained inside the operating lamp.

Niobium is used in arc welding rods for some stabilized grades of stainless steel and in anodes for cathodic protection systems on some water tanks, which are then usually plated with platinum.

Niobium is an important component of high-performance heterogeneous catalysts for the production of acrylic acid by selective oxidation of propane.