Erbium

Erbium is ANOTHER element named for the town of Ytterby, Sweden. It was discovered by Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843. It is very malleable, and is stable in the air, not oxidizing as quickly as most other rare earth elements. Sometimes, it is alloyed with the element vanadium so it becomes softer and easier to shape. While it is not a required element in the human body, there have been recent studies that show it may help with metabolism problems.

Erbium is commonly used in:

• Lasers and optical amplifiers
• Optical communications and optical fibers
• Nuclear technology as a neutron absorber
• Colorant for glass and porcelain
• Sunglasses and cheap jewelry
• Adds the pink color to cubic zirconia
• Photographic filter

Hafnium

Hafnium is named after the Latin name Hania, which means Copenhagen. Copenhagen is where hafnium was first discovered by Danish chemist Dirk Coster. It was predicted to be found AFTER Mendeleev created the periodic table. It is not found free in nature... but it does make up .00058% of the earth's crust. It was discovered using x-ray spectroscopy to observe some minerals and electrons.

It is found in ALL zirconium ores, though it is very difficult to separate. It is currently being sold for 120 dollars per 100 grams. It is commonly used in:

• Nuclear reactors
• Nuclear control rods
• Gas-filled and incandescent lamps
• Vacuum tubes
• An alloying agent in iron, niobium, tantalum, and titanium.
• Integrated circuits

Ytterbium

Name after it's place of discovery, ytterbium was first found in a Ytterby, Sweden quarry in 1843 by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac. It is not found free in nature, in fact, it was discovered by separating yttria, erbia, and terbia from gadolinite. While it was first found in gadolinite, it is also found in monazite and xenotime. In it's natural state, ytterbium is actually made up out of several stable isotopes.


While it oxidizes quickly in open air and dissolves fast in mineral acids, it is in fact very stable and reacts slowly with water- unlike most other rare earth elements. Though ytterbium and all its compounds are treated with care and stored carefully due to the fact it is toxic, it was not known until 1953- over a century after it's discovery- when the first pure form was produced that it was toxic. If it has contact with skin, it will irritate the eyes and skin. It is also a major fire hazard.

Ytterbium is often used in:

• Stainless steel
• Portable X-ray equipment when electricity isn't available
• Radiographic study of small objects
• Dentistry
• Solid state lasers
• Conversion of infrared energy into solar cell electricity

Thulium

Discovered in 1879 by Per Teodor Cleve of Sweden, thulium is the 69th element. It is named for Thule, which is the ancient name for Scandinavia. It is the least abundant of all rare earth elements, and is very resistant to corrosion when in dry air. It is relatively expensive, costing 40-50 dollars per gram.

 It is very easy to work with, and is so soft it can be easily cut with a knife. Like almost all other rare earth elements, it is found in other minerals- except for one of its stable isotopes, which is found free in nature.

It has many common uses, but the one I found most interesting was that it is being researched to be a possible energy source in the future. I am taking a energy course right now, and one of our future topics will be electric cars and stuff like that. Other than that, it is also used in:

• Lasers
• Nuclear reactors
• Portable X-ray power supplies
• Microwave equipment

Holmium

Holmium's founding is quite confusing- it was first found in 1878 in France by Jacques-Louis Soret and Marc Delfontaine, but it was also found independently in 1879 in Sweden by Per Teodor Cleve. Despite being found in France earlier, holmium was named for Stockholm, Sweden. It is currently priced at $10 a gram. While it is a very soft metal, it resists corrosion very well and also has the highest magnetic moment.

Like most other lanthanides, it is not found free in nature but instead found in monazite and gadolinite. It CAN be commercially extracted from monazite sand, but it is very difficult to separate from rare earth elements and is not typically done. It stays stable in dry air at room temperature, but will oxidize in moisture or at high temperatures. Holmium is typically used in:

• Magnetic poles
• Nuclear control rods
• Solid state lasers
• Microwaves
• Coloring glass yellow
• Spectrophotometers
• Cubic zirconia
• Medically reduction of kidney stones

Dysprosium

* Dysprosium will be shortened to Dy for this blog.

Dy is named from the Greek word dysprositos, which means hard to get at. It was discovered by Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran of France in 1886. It IS quite hard to get at, because as most lanthanides, it is not found free in nature and has to be mined from these minerals: xenotime, fergusonite, gadolinite, euxenite, polycrase, blomstrande, monazite and bastnasite. Most dy is mined from clay ores that are found in southern China.

While dy is stable in air at room temperature, it does oxidize very quickly. When it dilutes with certain mineral acids, hydrogen is produced. While it can be easily cut with bolt cutters, it cannot be cut with a knife. It's abilities and look are affected by the smallest little imperfections- not storing it properly or exposing it to other minerals.

Dy is often used in magnetic items, as it is very paramagnetic. It is often used it:

• Laser materials
• Nuclear control rods
• Nuclear reactors
• Compact discs
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Nano-magnets

Terbium

Fun Fact: Terbium is similar to calcium in\
many ways.

Terbium was discovered by Carl Gustaf Mosander of Ytterby, Sweden. Terbium is actually named for Ytterby, where it was discovered in 1843. Terbium is a very common element- it is actually more common than mercury and silver. While it is common, it is still expensive- $1800 for 100 grams.

Terbium is often used in:

• Solid state devices
• Electronic devices
• Fluorescent lamps
• Color television tubes
• Biochemistry probe
• Lighting technology, including incandescent lighting

I apologize for this being so short- I really couldn't find a lot about this mineral.

Gadolinium

Discovered by Jean de Marignac in 1880, gadolinium is named after the mineral gadolinite and also the Finnish meteorologist Johan Gadolin. It is never found free in nature- instead, it is found in other elements like monazite and bastnasite.

 Unlike most rare earth elements, it is very stable in dry air. However, it does tarnish quickly if exposed to moist air, as it reacts slowly with moisture and water. It also dissolves in dilute acid.

Gadolinium is not cheap- it is $485 per kilogram for the soft white metal! It is used in products such as microwaves, tvs, neutron radiography, and other items of lesser importance, such as computer memory chips and alloys and compounds. However, the price of gadolinium has dropped over the years as new technologies have been developed... like everything else, it is re-produced using different elements and chemicals, and has lost its value. It can now be prepared through reducing anhydrous fluoride with metallic calcium.

Europium

Hmmm.... I sure wonder what this element was named after. In case you cannot figure it out, it is named after Europe and was discovered by Eugene-Antole Demarcay of France in 1896. The most reactive of all rare earth elements, it oxidizes rapidly in air and ignites in the air to temperatures about 150 degrees celsius. As if being the most reactive rare earth element wasn't enough, it is also the rarest and most expensive one as well- $36 per gram.

Europium is currently being studied for use in nuclear reactors, as it absorbs neutrons well. It is already currently used in:
Down Syndrome Screening
Plastics to make lasers
TVs
Yttrium based phosphors
Anti-counterfeiting devices in Euro banknotes
Study of igneous rocks

Samarium

Samarium is the 62nd element in the periodic table of elements. I am going to do things a little differently this post- I am going to start out with the USES of the element. Samarium is used in the making of headphones and also is used to treat pain in bone cancer patients. It is also used in ethanol catalysts, permanent magnets, and nuclear reactors.

Samarium was discovered by Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran of France in 1879. He named it after the mineral smarskite. This element is not found free in nature, and the only way to produce it today is to do an ion exchange from monazite sand, a special sand that often contains rare earth elements such as samarium. Monazite sand can contain up to 2.8% of samarium.

A neat fact about samarium is that it was observed and it is thought to boost the metabolism, though it is not essential to the human body.

Promethium

Promethium was the last of the rare earth lanthanide elements to be discovered. In 1926, American chemist B. Smith Hopkins at the University of Illinois, claimed that the element had been found in rare-earth residues of monazite and he named it illinium, after his college and state. Hopkins thought that the element was radioactive with a short half-life.

However, Hopkins was not the only one to put in claims on the element: Italian chemist Luigi Rolla at the Royal University in Florence also claimed to have found the element in 1924. However, the right went to the holder of evidence that the element had, in fact, been produced- Jacob A. Marinsky.

The element was named after the Greek god Prometheus, who is famous in mythology for stealing fire from Mount Olympus to give to people.

 It was later found out that Hopkins was indeed correct- promethium is radioactive and should be handled VERY carefully. It was also discovered that it is the ONLY rare earth radioactive metal. Because out the radioactivity, its salts glow pale blue or green in the dark. The only current known way to produce promethium is through uranium fission.

Neodymium

Neodymium magnets

Discovered by Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach of Vienna Austria in 1925, neodymium is the 60th element in the periodic table and the 4th on the lanthanide table.  It comes from the Greek words neos (meaning new) and didymos (meaning twin).

While neodymium constitutes to 38 ppm of the earth's crust, it is not found free in nature. However, it is found in the minerals monazite and bastnaesite, and tarnishes rapidly when exposed to air.

It is often used in:

• Welder's and glass blower's goggles
• Colors glass, ceramics and enamels
• Permanent magnets
• Fertilizers
• Predictor of earthquakes
• Solid state lasers
• Infrared radiation filtering