My Science School

               Do you use a Parker fountain pen? A Parker 51 pen’s nib has iridium in it.

               The discovery of iridium is very similar to that of osmium. Scientists dissolved platinum in aqua regia, only to find a dark insoluble residue that resembled graphite forming in the liquid. Smithson Tennant, an English chemist, noticed that the residue contained two elements osmium and iridium in 1803. In 1804 he published his work and officially named both elements that he had accidentally discovered.

               Iridium is a very hard and brittle metal. It is one of the densest elements, second in density only to osmium. Iridium is one of the rarest metals and the most corrosion-resistant one. Therefore, it is used for deep water pipes and for the contacts in spark plugs. The element has utility in spacecraft engineering and telescope manufacture. Iridium is a member of the platinum family, and is white in colour, with a yellowish hue. Though it is not abundant in the earth’s crust, Iridium’s presence in meteorites is considerable. Due to the difficulty in extracting iridium, there are not many industrial applications for the element. However, its alloys are used widely. Iridium’s atomic number is 77, and it is represented as Ir.

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               Rhenium is a tough metal. It is silvery grey in colour, and  very heavy.

               Three German chemists, Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke, and Otto Berg are credited with the discovery and naming of the element in 1925.

               They reported that they had detected the element in platinum ore and in the mineral columbite. They also found rhenium in gadolinite and molybdenite. The trio named the element after the Rhine River in Germany.

               Rhenium has the highest boiling point of any of the elements. The single most common commercial use for rhenium is in the alloys that make up jet engines. Rhenium has the atomic number 75, and its atomic symbol is Re.

 

 

 

 

                Osmium is a hard and brittle metal, in bluish white colour. The name comes from the Greek word osme, which means smell, scent or odour. British chemist Smithson Tennant discovered osmium in 1803. The atomic number of osmium is 76, and its atomic symbol is Os.

 

               Thomas Alva Edison is probably a familiar name to everyone. He was an inventor who is credited with the invention of light bulb.

               After so many trial and error experiments with metal for the filaments, he came across a metal which was suitable for the bulbs. It was none other than tungsten.

               Tungsten is most used for the filaments of light bulbs and other types of lighting, because it has the highest melting point of all the metals. It ranges in colour from a steely grey, to almost white.

               Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a German-Swedish chemist, hypothesized the existence of tungsten in 1781. Two years later, Spanish chemists, Jose and Fausto Elhuyar isolated tungsten.

               The name tungsten comes from the Swedish words ‘tung sten’, meaning heavy stone. Tungsten is the heaviest of all elements known to play a biological role. Tungsten is resistant to attack by alkali, oxygen, and acids. Production of tungsten is difficult, due to its high melting point.

               It has the atomic number 74, and its atomic symbol is W.

               The symbol comes from its alternative name wolfram used by German tin miners.

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               Do you know how the element tantalum gets its name? There is a Greek mythological figure called Tantalus who was sentenced for his heinous crimes. He was punished to eternally stand in a stream, beneath a tree with fruit-laden branches, never being able to satiate his hunger or quench his thirst. The element tantalum is named after this villainous character.

               Tantalum was discovered by Anders Ekeberg, a Swiss chemist, in 1802. Ekeberg was an expert in Greek literature, and he was deaf!

               The element is blue-grey in colour, and is a very hard metal with the fourth highest melting point of any metallic element. It is well known for its ability to resist corrosion by acids, even aqua regia, a strong acidic mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.

               There is a wide variety of minerals that contain tantalum, but only five are viable for commercial uses at present. They are euxenite, microlite, polycrase, tantalite, and wodginite. Of these minerals, tantalite is the most important for tantalum mining.

               Tantalum is mainly found in Australia, Brazil, Mozambique, Thailand, Portugal, Nigeria, Zaire and Canada. It is used in a variety of alloys to add high strength, ductility and a high melting point.

               The atomic number of tantalum is 73, and its atomic symbol is Ta.

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Hafnium is a silvery grey shiny metal. The element is named after Hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. It is there that the element was discovered.

               Hafnium nuclei has the ability to absorb multiple neutrons; and therefore, it is used in nuclear reactors, especially nuclear powered submarines.

               Dmitri Mendeleev had predicted the possible existence of hafnium. He predicted an element with similar features in his report in 1869. However, it had not been discovered until 1923 by Dirk Coster, a Dutch physicist, and Georg von Hevesy, a Hungarian radio-chemist.

               Hafnium has many interesting features. It reacts with air and forms a film to protect itself. Due to this tendency of the metal, hafnium is very resistant to corrosion. A single fine particle of hafnium can spontaneously combust when it comes in contact with air.

               Hafnium does not exist in nature on its own. It is usually found combined with zirconium to form minerals. Hafnium is used in the manufacture of alloys with several metals, including iron, niobium, titanium, and tantalum.

               Hafnium has the atomic number 72, and it is represented as Hf.

               There is an interesting story behind the naming of the element now known as lutetium. Lutetium was discovered in 1907 independently by three scientists. They were Charles James, an American scientist, Georges Urbain, a French chemist, and Carl Auer von Welsbach, an Austrian mineralogist. When it came to naming the element, there was a dispute among them. Urbain, French by birth, proposed two names, one of which was ‘lutecium’, conceived from Lutetia, the Roman name for Paris. Welsbach had some other ideas. Both of them accused each other of using each other’s research details as well. Anyhow, Urbain’s name was accepted, and it gained popularity with a small change in spelling —from lutecium to lutetium.

               The element has not been isolated until recent years, and it is one of the most difficult ones to prepare. There are very few commercial uses for lutetium because it is too expensive, and too difficult to extract.

               The atomic number of lutetium is 71, and its symbol is Lu.

               Ytterbium is a bright metal with silvery white colour. It is a soft metal, and is both ductile and malleable. The metal tarnishes quickly in air, and reacts slowly with water. Ytterbium is considered to be moderately toxic. Closeness to the  compounds  of ytterbium can cause irritation to skin and eyes.

               Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, a Swiss chemist, is reputed to have discovered ytterbium in 1878. However, ytterbium as a pure metal was produced only in 1953, at the Ames Laboratory, Iowa, by A. Daane, David Dennison and Frank Spedding. The element is named after Ytterby, a village in Sweden.

               Very rarely is ytterbium found free in nature. However, the element is abundantly available in a number of minerals such as monazite, gadolinite euxenite and xenotime.

               There are many isotopes of ytterbium. Isotope 160Yb is radioactive, and is used in portable x-ray machines that need no electricity. It is used in stress gauges to monitor ground deformations caused by earthquakes or underground explosions. Atomic clocks also use ytterbium for accuracy of time.

               The atomic number of ytterbium is 70, and its atomic symbol is Yb.

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               Yes, thulium is used in Euro banknotes to prevent counterfeiting. The element  in the note displays blue fluorescence under ultraviolet light thus aiding in distinguishing between the real and the fake currency note.

               Thulium gets its name from the name of an ancient place called Thule which is associated with Scandinavia. Per Teodor Cleve, the Swedish chemist discovered two new materials, one green and one brown, while working with erbia (erbium oxide) in 1879, in Uppsala, Sweden. These turned out to be oxides of two new elements: thulium and holmium. The green substance he named thulia, which he later found to be thulium oxide, and the brown substance he named holmia, which he later found to be holmium oxide. Charles James in New Hampshire prepared the first pure thulium in 1911.

               This element does not have many uses as it is rare, and therefore, costly. There are many cheaper elements that can substitute thulium. It is used in laser equipment and X-ray devices. The atomic number of thulium is 69, and its atomic symbol is Tm.

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               As we have already seen, many elements were discovered in the Swedish village Ytterby. The element erbium was one among them, and was discovered in 1843. It was the Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander who discovered the element. Mosander was working with a sample of what was thought to be the single metal oxide yttria, derived from the mineral gadolinite. He extracted three segments from it and called them yttria, erbia and terbia. As might be expected considering the similarities between their names and properties, scientists soon confused erbia and terbia. Mosander’s terbia became known as erbia after 1860, and the earlier known erbia was renamed terbia after 1877!

               It is difficult to find natural erbium independently on earth as it is always found in chemical compounds. Erbium has a special ability to absorb harmful infra-red rays. Therefore, the element is used in the glass of safety goggles for welders.

               Erbium occurs in a variety of minerals, including gadolinite, euxenite, xenotime, fergusonite, polycrase and blomstrandine.

               The atomic number of erbium is 68, and its symbol is Er.

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               Stockholm is the capital city of Sweden. Holmium is named after this city which is known as   Holmia in Latin.

               The element was discovered spectroscopically by Marc Delafontaine and Jacques-Louis Soret in 1878. Per Teodor Cleve, a Swedish chemist, discovered the element independently in 1879, and he named it after his hometown, Stockholm. The pure metal was isolated in 1911, by Otto Holmberg.

               Holmium is a bright, soft, silvery white element. The element has some special magnetic properties and they enable holmium to be used in alloys for the production of magnets. Holmium magnets can, in fact, create the strongest magnetic fields. Holmium is also used in nuclear reactors.

               Holmium is not generally seen as a free element in nature but is found in compounds in a number of minerals such as gadolinite and monazite.

               It is commercially extracted from monazite and occurs in that mineral at a rate of about 0.05 per cent.

               Holmium is mainly used in laser surgery. There are not many commercial uses for the element.

               The atomic number of holmium is 67, and it is represented as Ho.

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               Terbium is a silvery-white element, which is malleable and so soft that it can be cut with a knife.

               It is named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, where the first sample of the element was found.

               In 1843, Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander separated the mineral gadolinite into three materials, which he called yttria, erbia and terbia. From two of these substances, he discovered erbium and terbium. Erbium and two other elements namely ytterbium and yttrium are also named after Ytterby. Although terbium is relatively stable in the air, it reacts with water when exposed to it. It’s used in x-ray imaging screens and CDs. Terbium has the atomic number 65, and is represented as Tb.

               Dysprosium is a soft silvery metal. The element was discovered in 1886 by Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a French chemist, but he was not able to isolate it. It was not isolated until 1950, when Canadian scientist Frank Spedding and his team developed ion-exchange separation and metallographic reduction techniques.

               Dysprosium is not currently used for a wide range of applications except when there is no other alternative. The atomic number of dysprosium is 66, and the symbol is Dy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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               You do not have to think too much to realize how europium got its name. It is named after the continent Europe.

               Europium is silvery white in colour. However, since the element reacts with air, it is rarely seen without dis-colouration. It can be easily moulded or shaped, and is about as hard as lead. The French chemist, Eugene-Anatole Demarcay, is credited with the discovery of the element as it was he who ultimately produced a relatively pure form of europium in 1901. Although humans had been using this element and had known of its existence, it took many years for man to isolate the element properly.

               Europium can be found in the ores bastnasite and monazite. The element has also been identified in the sun, and some other stars. The atomic number of europium is 63, and it is represented as Eu.

               Gadolinium is also silvery white in colour in its pure form. It is named after the mineral gadolinite, one of the minerals in which gadolinium is found. It is a malleable and ductile element. Its magnetic properties allow it to be tracked through the human body; and therefore, it is used for magnetic resonance imaging in medical diagnosis. The atomic number of gadolinium is 64, and the symbol is Gd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets, a Russian mining engineer, was instrumental in the discovery of a particular mineral which was named ‘samarskite’ after his own name. Our element, samarium, was first extracted from this mineral, and thus, is named after it. Samarsky-Bykhovets may be the first person to be the namesake of an element, although indirectly.

               Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a French chemist, discovered the element in 1879. The element is moderately hard and greyish white in colour. It is fairly stable in the air and has a bright silver sheen. Samarium is found in many minerals, including monazite and bastnasite, which are commercially desirable sources. While samarium has not been isolated in its pure form until recently, mischmetal, an alloy mix containing about 1 per cent of samarium metal, has been in use for a long time.

               Samarium forms a compound with cobalt and this alloy is a powerful permanent magnet. It has the highest resistance to demagnetization of any known material. The element is used as a neutron absorber in nuclear reactors and in infrared absorbing glass.

               The atomic number of samarium is 62, and it is represented as Sm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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            Prometheus is a legendary Greek hero. He is known as a trickster because he defied the gods and stole fire from them to give it to Man. Promethium is named after Prometheus. The reason is that the element glows in the dark like the fire of Prometheus!

            The discovery of the element was the result of the hard work of four scientists: Charles D. Coryell, Jacob A. Marinsky, Lawrence E. Glendenin, and Harold G. Richter. They were trying to create fuel for an atomic bomb. The first identification and separation of element happened in 1945. They were able to extract promethium-147, an isotope of the element, from the by-products of uranium fission.

            The element had been discovered, in the spectrum of HR 465, a star in a constellation called Andromedae, which lies 520 light-years away from us.

           The glow-in-the-dark promethium is a highly radioactive element. The element is not easily found anywhere on Earth. Due to its rarity, the element is primarily used for research. However, scientists look at it as an element with a variety of possibilities. It could be used in medical devices, batteries, and in luminescent paint. The atomic number of promethium is 61, and it is represented as Pm.

 

                Like twins, these two elements were born together! Carl Auer von Welsbach, an Austrian scientist, discovered neodymium and praseodymium at the same time. He separated the elements from a substance called didymium in 1885.

               Praseodymium can be found in a variety of minerals. Larger quantities of the element are found in monazite and bastnasite. Praseodymium is commonly used as an alloying agent with magnesium to create high strength metals used in aircraft engines. The atomic number of praseodymium is 59, and the element is represented as Pr.

               Neodymium is a soft and silvery metal. The element easily reacts with the air. Its uses are manifold. Neodymium’s chief use is as a reddish-purple pigment for glass and ceramics. It is also used in cryocoolers that regulate heat in experiments with metals. Neodymium is an important element in certain fertilizers. The element, when alloyed with iron and boron, produces the strongest permanent magnets known to exist.

              Neodymium has the atomic number 60 and it is represented as Nd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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