Lutetium: 10 Things You Should Know About This Chemical Element

Lutetium can be found on the element chart as Lu, and the atomic number of this element is 71. This is a very hard and dense metal with the highest melting point of all lanthanides. Although the frequency of mention in the workplace and mainstream media may be low, lutetium may be recognizable, but investors should also be aware that this rare element is very expensive. The scarcity of this metal alone is an interesting investment option, but there are many more elements.

Below you will probably find 10 more interesting facts about lutetium that you don't know yet.

1. Lutetium was discovered by three separate individuals at about the same time. However, after many years of controversy over discovery, the honor of metal naming was given to Georges Urban. Irvine announced his findings before others and settled the dispute somewhat.

2. Lutetium was discovered in ytterbia, a mineral that was previously thought to contain only ytterbium. For this reason, lutetium was initially considered an impurity of ytterbia, not a separate element belonging to another class.

3. The original spelling of lutetium was “Lutetium”. However, it was changed to the current spell in 1949.

4. Lutetium has only a few different uses, probably due to the fact that it is such a rare metal. It is radioactive and is used as lutetium-176, which is used to determine the age of met stones. It is also used as a refinery catalyst to accelerate petroleum cracking. It is also used for polymerization, alkylation and hydrogenation.

5. Lutetium never exists by itself and is always detected with other rare metals and is very difficult to remove from other metals. The most commercially viable ore containing lutetium is monazite, which is also very rare.

6. The price of lutetium at the time of writing this article is about $ 10,000 per kilogram. In other words, it is worth about a quarter of the same amount of gold.

7. Most rare metals are toxic and lutetium is no exception. Although lutetium itself is considered to have a very low toxicity, lutetium compounds should always be handled with caution. For example, lutetium dust is considered to be an explosion and fire hazard.

8. Lutetium has 71 electrons and therefore has an atomic number. Each time a lutetium atom enters a chemical reaction, it loses electrons. A single 5d electron and two outer electrons.

9. Lutetium is a silver-white trivalent metal and has corrosion resistance.

10. Lutetium is considered rare because it is not abundant in the earth's crust. Lutetium is estimated to be present at a rate of 0.5 mg / kg. Only six regions are regularly mined in the US, Australia, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and China. It seems to be mainly due to the rarity of lutetium, but at the time of this writing, the current global production rate is about 10 tons per year.