INTRODUCTION
Lutetium is a silvery white metallic element. Its name was derive from the word Lutetia, the ancient name of Paris. It occurs in various rare earth minerals, usually associated with yttrium.
It is the rarest of the rare earth elements and ranks 59th in order of abundance of the elements in Earth's crust.
BASIC INFORMATIONS
- Atomic Number
- 71
- Atomic Mass
- 174.967
- Atomic radius
- 0.156
- Ionization energy
- 1st,2nd,3rd (3898)
- Electronic config
- 2,8,18,32,9,2
- Principal Valency
- +2
- Density g/cm³
- 9.84
- Melting point °C
- 1652
- Boiling point °C
- 3402
- Type of Element
- Metal
- Electronegativity
- N/A
- Element Category
- Lanthanide series
- Appearance
- Silvery white solid
- Block
- f-block
- Period
- 8
- Group
- 18
- No of Isotopes
- 35
- Occurrence
- Combine form
- Abundance in ppm
- 0.8
- Year of Discovery
- 1907
EXTRACTION
It is obtain by ion exchange process
OXIDATION STATES
+3,+2,+1 (Weakly basic)
MAJOR SOURCE
Monazite, Bastnasite
EXAMPLES OF COMPOUND PRESENT
Lutetium oxide
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
* The natural radioactive isotope of lutetium with half-life of about 30 billion years is used in determining the age of meteorites.
* Lutetium serve as catalyst in the nuclear industries.