Ytterbium was discovered in the year 1878 by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in Geneva, Switzerland. To obtain it, he heated erbium nitrate until it was decomposed, and then he extracted the residue, which contained an unknown white powder. He named it ytterbium oxide (ytterbia).
In 1907, in Paris, George Urbain separated ytterbia into two constituents-two rare earth oxides. One is ytterbium, the other is called lutetium. Ytterbium metal was first made in 1937.
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