Praseodymium

Praseodymium (or PR, as I will call it in this post) is the 59th element in the table of elements and the 3rd in the lanthanide elements table. It was discovered by Baron Carl Auer Von Welsbach in 1885. It is derived from the Greek word that mean "green twin".

It does not occur free in nature; instead it is derived from plutonium by bombarding it with alpha particles. PR has been studied greatly to see if it would make a good fuel for a generator, and it is still being studied today.

PR is used in:

• Aircraft engines
• Motion picture industry (studio and projector lighting)
• Coloring in glasses and enamels
• Color cubic zirconia to simulate peridot
• Welder and glass blower goggles

Cerium

Discovered by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1803, cerium is the 58th element and the 2nd element in the lanthanide element table. While it is called one of the four rare earth elements, it is in fact the opposite and is more common than lead in the earth's crust. Sometimes cerium causes fires- if it ever does, never use water to put it out. Cerium reacts to water and releases a gas that is more deadly than the fire itself.

Cerium is used in many thing, including:

• Heat resistant alloys, particularly aluminum alloys
• Cast irons
• Steel production, including stainless steel
• Refining of grain
• Magnets
• Arc welding
• Lighter flint
• Motion picture industry
• Self cleaning ovens
• Glass
• Petroleum refinement
• Oxidizing agent
• Catalysts in organic synthesis

Lanthanum

Discovered by Carl Gustav Mosander of Stockholm Sweden in 1839, lanthanum is a soft metal that can be easily cut with a knife. Lanthanum also is the most reactive of all rare earth metals- it reacts with carbon, nitrogen, boron, selenium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and the halogens (such as iodine). It's name is derived from the Greek word for "to lie hidden".

Fun Fact: It is one of the four rare earth elements.

Lanthanum is mildly toxic, and while a small exposure cannot kill you or make you sick, a large exposure to it can so it should be handled with care. It oxidizes quickly to oxygen and hot water, but barely reacts at all to cold water.

Fun Fact: Lanthanum is often used as an alloy, but its compounds are more often used for lighting by cinemas for stage lights.

Barium

Discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy of England in 1808, barium is a soft metal element. It is a beautiful silvery white when in its true form. It oxidizes quickly, and has to be stored in petroleum and other oxygen free liquids. Oxygen is not the only thing it reacts to, however- it also decomposes in water and alcohol, and its compounds are soluble in any waters or acids that are poisonous.

Fun Fact: The word was derived from the Greek word 'barys', meaning heavy/dense.

Barium has a few uses including vacuum tubes, pigments, paints, glass-making, the manufacturing of rubber, rat poison, and in pyrotechnics (fireworks). Barium is only found mixed in with other minerals- most commonly in barite, sulfate and witherite.

Diamond

A diamond is another form of carbon, formed over billions of years under extreme pressure and heat. Volcanic eruptions bring them to the Earth's surface. Every year, companies mine about 57000 pounds of diamonds. They are worth billions of dollars. The most diamonds are found in Africa. There are a number of ways to produce synthetic diamonds, including high-pressure high-temperature synthesis, chemical vapor deposition, and detonation synthesis. While not as expensive as real diamond, it still costs a pretty penny at 200 dollars per carat. The first synthetic diamond was produced in the 1950's.

The word "diamond" comes from the Greek word for "unbreakable". The name is perfect, since the only thing that can scratch a diamond is another diamond. On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, diamond ranks a ten. Ten is the hardest on the scale, and one is the softest. Diamonds can cut through any material except another diamond, in which case they can just leave scratches.

 Diamond is the hardest natural material known to man and is often used in factories for industrial cutting and polishing tools. Diamond is also the best known thermal conductor among naturally occurring substances.The synthesized material known as cubic zirconia is a crystalline form of zirconium dioxide. It is at times in competition with diamond because as well as being hard, optically flawless and colorless, it is also durable and cheap. 

Diamonds, however, hold the place as the world's most popular gem. It is also the most searched for. Diamonds, being so beautiful, are used mostly in expensive jewelry. A diamond ring is usually used for a wedding ring. A few of the world's most famous diamonds include: 

The Hope Diamond, a rare large blue diamond that holds a reputation for being cursed.

The Yellow Tiffany Diamond weighed an amazing 287.42 carats when it was found in the North Kimberly Mine.

The Koh-i-Noor Diamond is thought to be the world's largest diamond. It is now part of the British Crown Jewels.

After being originally found by a slave in an Indian mine, the 140.64 carat Regent Diamond has been through an epic history including an English sea merchant and French royalty. It is now on display at the Louvre, where it has been on display since 1887.

Sapphire

The official birthstone for those born in September, the sapphire is a beautiful deep blue stone. However, while many people think blue is the ONLY color for a sapphire, that is very false. Sapphires also come in almost any other color. Rare, peach colored sapphires are called padparadscha. It is also a 9.0 on the Mohs scale- the second hardest element.

Star sapphires (or regular sapphires) usually only have 6 ray stars, but in some cases, there are twelves ray stars. Depending on how a sapphire is cut, it may or may not have a cat's eye effect. Some of the richer blue sapphires you see are likely heat treated- this is done to draw color from very pale gems and also removes tiny inclusions.

There are also lab grown sapphires. The stones are easily told apart from genuine gems because of their size and price- lab grown gems are often times very small.

Cesium

Discovered by Gustov Kirchoff and Robert Bunsen of Germany in 1860, cesium is a very soft and ductile light grey metal. It's name comes from the Latin word "coesius", meaning sky blue. The name was chosen for the blue lines that run through the metal's spectrum. Cesium turns to a liquid in a warm room. Only a few metals do this- the others being gallium, francium, and mercury.

A cesium reaction to water

Cesium is extremely reactive, having the most alkaline of all elements. It causes explosions upon contact with water producing cesium hydroxide, which is a very strong base that has the ability to corrode glass.

A very interesting fact about cesium is that it is used in atomic clocks. Atomic clocks are extremely accurate. In fact, cesium was used in the clocks that record the official world time. Currently it neither gains nor loses a second in more than 60 million years.

Xenon

Xenon originates from the Greek word for 'strange'- and strange it is. Discovered by Sir William Ramsay and M. W. Travers of England in 1898, xenon is a noble or inert gas. The thing that makes it strange is that it is in fact the heaviest gas currently known- a liter of it weighs 5.842 grams. Even though it is a gas, it still forms compounds. While xenon itself isn't toxic, it's compounds ARE.

That is only one of the differences between the compound and gas. Compounds can be colored, while most gas stays colorless. However, excited xenon in a vacuum tube glows blue. Xenon is often used in electron tubes, bactericidal lamps, strobe lamps, and lamps used to excite ruby lasers. It is often obtained by extraction from liquid air. However, other "xenons" are produced by neutron irradiation in air cooled nuclear reactors.

Iodine

The name iodine comes from the Greek word 'iodes', which means 'violet'. This at first would make no sense, as solid iodine is a blue-black non-metal that is very shiny. However, at normal temperatures, iodine turns into its gaseous form, and the gas is a violet color. Iodine is only found in solid and gas forms, there is no liquid state.


I called iodine a 'non-metal' above- it is actually halogen. Halogen is a non-metal. However, iodine also possesses a lot of metallic qualities.


The thyroid gland uses iodine to make the hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine. Insufficient iodine leads to development of a goiter, which is a swelling of the thyroid gland. Iodine deficiency is believed to be the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. Excessive iodine symptoms are similar to those of iodine insufficiency. Iodine toxicity is more severe if a person has a selenium deficiency. Iodine is used extensively in medicine. However, some people develop a chemical sensitivity to iodine. Sensitive individuals may develop a rash when swabbed with tincture of iodine. In rare cases, anaphylactic shock has resulted from medical exposure to iodine.

Tellurium

Not much is known about tellurium. It was found by Franz Joseph Meller von Reichenstein of Romania in 1782. It is a silvery-white metal and has a very high metallic luster when pure. It is also very brittle. It's name comes from the Latin word 'tellus', meaning 'earth'.

Fun Fact: Humans exposed to as little as 0.01 mg of it in the air, or even less, develop what is known as tellurium breath: a garlic-like odor.