Ytterbium is a chemical element with the symbol Yb and the
atomic number 70.
Ytterbium is a metal from the rare earth group. Like the other lanthanides, it
is silver gray, malleable and ductile at room temperature. It should be kept
away from air, especially damp.
The name ytterbium, comes from the place, Ytterby near Stockholm in Sweden,
where the ore was discovered in which several other rare earths have also been
identified. The chemical elements yttrium, erbium and terbium share the same
etymology.
Like most lanthanides, it is extracted from monazite where it is found in a
proportion of 0.03%. Ytterbium has three allotropic forms. The transition
temperatures are −13 ¡ã C and 795 ¡ã C. Between these two temperatures, (beta
form) it adopts a cubic structure with centered faces, while at high temperature
(gamma form), it becomes centered cubic. Natural ytterbium is a mixture of 7
stable isotopes.
In 1789, the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin identified a new oxide (or "earth")
in a sample of ytterbite (later renamed "gadolinite" in his honor). This new
rock had been discovered two years ago by Lieutenant Carl Axel Arrhenius near
the village of Ytterby in Sweden. These works were confirmed in 1797 by Anders
Gustaf Ekeberg who baptized the new oxide yttria6.
In 1878, the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac discovered that
erbine is not homogeneous and in fact contains several distinct elements. By
treating the chlorides in solution with hyposulfurous acid, he manages to
separate a new colorless salt from the pink salts of erbium oxide. Consecrating
Ytterby's place in the history of chemical nomenclature, he names this ¡°earth¡±
ytterbine (in Latin ytterbia) and considers it as a compound of a new chemical
element, ytterbium .
These experiments are repeated the following year in Sweden by Lars Fredrik
Nilson who confirms the discovery and manages to isolate an additional element
by continuing the fractionation procedure. He names it scandium in honor of
Scandinavia8.
The Frenchman Georges Urbain, the Austrian Carl Auer von Welsbach and the
American Charles James (in) discovered almost simultaneously and independently
in 1907 that the yytterbine of Marignac is made up of two distinct elements. On
November 4, 1907, Urbain presented his research at the Academy of Sciences in
Paris and proposed to name the two elements neo-ytterbium, "in order to avoid
confusion with the old element of Marignac", and lutetium, "derived from the old
name of Paris ¡±9. On December 19, Baron von Welsbach announced in turn the
result of his work carried out since 1905. He recommended the names cassiopeium
(Cp, after the constellation Cassiop¨¦e, corresponding to the lutetium) and
aldebaranium (Ad, according to the Aldebaran star, replacing ytterbium) 10. At
the same time, at the University of New Hampshire, Charles James had been able
to isolate significant quantities of the ytterbium companion during the summer
of 1907. Upon learning of the announcement made by Georges Urbain, he gave up
claiming the authorship of the new element. However, among the three scientists,
he was probably the one with the most advanced research7.
Very few common uses:
stainless steel: improved processing properties of stainless steel;
atomic clock ;
active ion for laser crystals: active ion more and more used in laser crystals
like Yb: YAG or Yb: KYW emitting at about 1030-1070 nm (about 1 micrometer) in
the near infrared.
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rhenium germanium zirconium cadmium hafnium
barium lithium beryllium strontium calcium
Tantalum gadolinium samarium yttrium ytterbium
Lutetium praseodymium holmium erbium thulium dysprosium
terbium europium lanthanum cerium neodymium scandium
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