Indium

For over 100 years following its discovery, indium lay in obscurity perceived as uninteresting and of little use. Today, however, this metal is vital to the world economy in the form of indium tin oxide (ITO), which is used in the growing flat- screen TV and solar panel markets. ITO has three properties that make it invaluable for these applications: it adheres strongly to glass; it is transparent; and it conducts electricity. Light can pass through it both when it acts as an electrode in a solar panel to generate electricity, and in the opposite direction when it is used to create electronic images in a flat-panel display.