| Lutetium | |
|---|---|
| Properties | |
| Atomic symbol | Lu |
| Atomic number | 71 |
| Classification | Rare Earth |
| Atomic mass | 174.967 amu |
| Number of Stable Isotopes | 2 |
| Density (grams per cc) | 9.840 g/cm^3 |
| Other Information | |
| Date of discovery | 1907 |
| Name of discoverer | Georges Urbain, Carl Auer von Welsbach and Charles James |
| Name origin | From Lutetia, the ancient name of Paris. |
| Uses | Used in alloys and can be used as a catalyst in cracking, hydrogenation, polymerization and alkylation. It's primary use is in chemical research. |
| Obtained from | Found with ytterbium in gadolinite and xenotime. Its chief ores are monazite and bastnasite. |
Lutetium is the hardest and densest of the rare earth metals. It has two stable isotopes (actually one, but another one has a half-life of over 1010 years).
Lutetium was discovered in 1907 by Georges Urbain and others, after being separated from ytterbium. This brought to a close a long period of confusion about whether the (very similar) elements ytterbium, terbium, and erbium were different, and which one was which.
| Periodic Table of the Elements | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |||||||
| *Lanthanides | 71
Lu 174.97 |
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| **Actinides | ||||||||||||||||||||||||