Discovered in 1794 by Johann Gadolin of Finland, yttrium got its strange name from the small village of Ytterby, near Vauxholm, Sweden. Ytterby is the village which has the quarry where the minerals erbium, terbium, and ytterbium are mined, hence the name "yttrium". Yttrium is pronounced "it-tree-um".Yttrium is a metal with a silver luster to it. It is usually very stable in open air, except when it is very finely divided. Yttrium turnings will ignite in open air if their temperature is anything over 400 degrees celsius.
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| Iron yttrium garnet |
Yttrium is a component of the phosphors used to produce the red color in tv picture tubes. The oxides in it can be used in ceramics and glass, as yttrium oxides have high melting points and impart shock resistance and low expansion to glass.
* Yttrium garnets have a hardness of 8.5 on the Mohs scale, and are often used to simulate diamonds.
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