Vanadium
![](/Images/godic/202502/01/Vanadium_etched1946.jpg")
![The Model T made use of vanadium steel in its chassis.](/Images/godic/202502/01/1910Ford-T1946.jpg")
![High-purity (99.95%) vanadium cuboids, ebeam remelted and macro-etched](/Images/godic/202502/01/Vanadium-bar1946.jpg")
![From left: [V(H2O)6]2+ (lilac), [V(H2O)6]3+ (green), [VO(H2O)5]2+ (blue) and [VO(H2O)5]3+ (yellow).](/Images/godic/202502/01/Vanadiumoxidationstates1946.jpg")
Vanadium is a chemical element with symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery grey, ductile and malleable transition metal. The element is found almost exclusively in chemically combined form in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the free metal somewhat against further oxidation.