Lutetium

Lutetium
The mineral gadolinite ((Ce, La, Nd, Y)2FeBe2Si2O10), discovered in a quarry near the town of Ytterby, Sweden, has been the source of a great number of rare earth elements. In 1843, Carl Gustaf Mosander, a Swedish chemist, was able to separate gadolinite into three materials, which he named yttria, erbia and terbia. As might be expected considering the similarities between their names and properties, scientists soon confused erbia and terbia and, by 1877, had reversed their names. What Mosander called erbia is now called terbia and visa versa. In 1878 Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, a Swiss chemist, discovered that erbia was itself composed of two components. One component was named ytterbia by Marignac while the other component retained the name erbia. Marignac believed that ytterbia was a compound of a new element, which he named ytterbium. Other chemists produced and experimented with ytterbium in an attempt to determine some of it's properties. Unfortunately, different scientists obtained different results from the same experiments. While some scientists believed that these inconsistent results were caused by poor procedures or faulty equipment, Georges Urbain, a French chemist, believed that ytterbium wasn't an element at all, but a mixture of two elements. In 1907, Urbain was able to separate ytterbium into two elements. Urbain named one of the elements neoytterbium (new ytterbium) and the other element lutecium. Carl Auer von Welsbach, a German chemist working independently of Urbain, reached the same conclusions at nearly the same time. Welsbach chose the names albebaranium and cassiopium for these elements. Urbain was eventually credited with the discovery of the elements and won the right to name them, although chemists later changed the name neoytterbium back to ytterbium and changed the spelling of lutecium to lutetium. Today, lutetium is primarily obtained through an ion exchange process from monazite sand ((Ce, La, Th, Nd, Y)PO4), a material rich in rare earth elements. Lutetium is one of the most difficult elements to prepare and has no large scale practical uses, although some of its radioactive isotopes can be used as a catalyst in the cracking of petroleum products and a catalyst in some hydrogenation and polymerization processes.
 * Atomic Number:** 71
 * Atomic Weight:** 174.9668
 * Melting Point:** 1936 K (1663°C or 3025°F)
 * Boiling Point:** 3675 K (3402°C or 6156°F)
 * Density:** 9.84 grams per cubic centimeter
 * Phase at Room Temperature:** Solid
 * Element Classification:** Metal
 * Period Number:** 6 **Group Number:** 3 **Group Name:** Lanthanide
 * What's in a name?** From an ancient name for the city of Paris, **Lutetia**.
 * Say what?** Lutetium is pronounced as **loo-TEE-shee-em**.
 * History and Uses:**
 * Estimated Crustal Abundance:** 8×10-1 milligrams per kilogram
 * Estimated Oceanic Abundance:** 1.5×10-7 milligrams per liter
 * Number of Stable Isotopes:** 1 (View all isotope data)
 * Ionization Energy:** 5.426 eV
 * Oxidation State:** +3

Harmful effects: Lutetium is considered to be non toxic. Characteristics: Lutetium is a silvery-white rare earth metal. The metal tarnishes slowly in air and burns at 150 oC to the oxide. It is the densest and hardest of the lanthanides. It is also one of the least abundant lanthanides, however it is still more abundant on earth than silver or gold. When present in compounds, lutetium exists usually in the trivalent state ,Lu3+. Most of its salts are colorless.

Uses of Lutetium
Lutetium oxide is used to make catalysts for cracking hydrocarbons in the petrochemical industry. 177Lu is used in cancer therapy and because of its long half-life, 176Lu is used to date the age of meteorites. Lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) is currently used in detectors in positron emission tomography (PET). This is a noninvasive medical scan that creates a three-dimensional image of the body's cellular activity.

EXTRA INFO

is a [|chemical element] with the symbol **Lu** and [|atomic number] 71. It is the last element in the [|lanthanide] series, which, along with the [|lanthanide contraction], explains several important properties of lutetium, such as it having the highest hardness or density among lanthanides. Unlike other lanthanides, which lie in the [|f-block] of the [|periodic table], this element lies in the [|d-block]; however, [|lanthanum] is sometimes placed on the d-block lanthanide position. Chemically, lutetium is a typical lanthanide: its only common oxidation state is +3, seen in its oxide, halides and other compounds. In an aqueous solution, like compounds of other late lanthanides, soluble lutetium compounds form a complex with nine water molecules. Lutetium was independently discovered in 1907 by French scientist [|Georges Urbain], Austrian mineralogist Baron [|Carl Auer von Welsbach], and American chemist [|Charles James]. All of these men found lutetium as an impurity in the mineral [|ytterbia], which was previously thought to consist entirely of ytterbium. The dispute on the priority of the discovery occurred shortly after, with Urbain and von Welsbach accusing each other of publishing results influenced by the published research of the other; the naming honor went to Urbain as he published his results earlier. He chose the name lutecium for the new element but in 1949 the spelling of element 71 was changed to lutetium. In 1909, the priority was finally granted to Urbain and his names were adopted as official ones; however, the name cassiopeium (or later cassiopium) for element 71 proposed by von Welsbach was used by many German scientists until the 1950s. Like other lanthanides, lutetium is one of the elements that traditionally were included in the classification "[|rare earths]." Lutetium is rare and expensive; consequently, it has few specific uses. For example, a [|radioactive isotope] lutetium-176 is used in [|nuclear technology] to determine the age of [|meteorites]. Lutetium usually occurs in association with the element [|yttrium] and is sometimes used in metal [|alloys] and as a [|catalyst] in various chemical reactions. 177Lu-[|DOTA-TATE] is used for radionuclide therapy (see [|Nuclear medicine]) on neuroendocrine tumours


 * Atomic Structure**

Isotopes

 * ** Isotope ** || ** Half Life ** ||
 * Lu-172 || 6.7 days ||
 * Lu-172m || 3.7 minutes ||
 * Lu-173 || 1.37 years ||
 * Lu-174 || 3.3 years ||
 * Lu-174m || 142.0 days ||
 * Lu-175 || Stable ||
 * Lu-176 || 3.6E10 years ||
 * Lu-177 || 6.68 days ||
 * Lu-177m || 160.7 days ||