Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Secret Lanthanides
Type:
Physical
Chapter:
17.0
17.0 Lutetium physical
Lutetium is a silvery white corrosion-resistant trivalent metal that is relatively stable in air and is the heaviest and hardest of the rare earth elements. Lutetium has the highest spin quantum number of the elements, at 7.
This element is very expensive to obtain in useful quantities and therefore it has very few commercial uses. Lutetium usually occurs in association with yttrium. A strict correlation between periodic table blocks and chemical series for neutral atoms would describe lutetium as a transition metal, but it is commonly considered a Lanthanide.
Atomic Number: 71.
Symbol: Lu.
Discovery: 1907 by G. Urbain at Paris, France, and, independently by
C. James at the University of New Hampshire, USA.
Name: Lutetia, the old name for Paris.
Lutetia comes from the Latin ludo, which means "play".
The element has also been called Cassiopeium.
Toxicology: stimulates metabolism.
Ore: monazite.
Uses
1. Metallurgy: alloys.
2. Catalyst in various processes, petroleum cracking in refineries, in alkylation, hydrogenation, and polymerization applications.
3. LuTaO is the heaviest material.
4. Useful in optical guiding.