 Discovery Information
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| Who: Jean de Marignac |
| When: 1880 |
| Where: Switzerland |
|
| Name Origin
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| Named after the Finnish chemist and geologist Johan Gadolin. |
| "Gadolinium" in different languages. |
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| Sources
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| Gadolinium is never found in nature in elemental form. It is obtained from many rare minerals such as bastnasite, monazite
and trace amounts in gadolinite.
|
| Primary mining deposits are located in the USA, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and China. Annual production is around 400 tons.
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| Abundance
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| Universe: 0.002 ppm (by weight) |
| Sun: 0.002 ppm (by weight) |
| Carbonaceous meteorite: 0.23 ppm |
| Earth's Crust: 7.7 ppm |
| Seawater: |
| Atlantic surface: 5.2 x 10-7 ppm
|
| Atlantic deep: 9.3 x 10-7 ppm
|
| Pacific surface: 6 x 10-7 ppm
|
| Pacific deep: 1.5 x 10-6 ppm
|
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| Uses
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| Compounds of gadolinium are used in making phosphors for colour TV tubes and in the manufacture of compact discs and computer memory.
Gallium Gadolinium Garnet (Gd3Ga5O12) is a material with good optical properties, and is used in fabrication of various optical components and as substrate material
for magneto-optical films.
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| Gadolinium is used for making gadolinium yttrium garnets, which have microwave applications.
|
| Solutions of organic gadolinium complexes are used as intravenous radiocontrast agents to enhance images in medical magnetic
resonance imaging. Because of their paramagnetic properties, gadolinium compounds are used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
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|
| History
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| In 1880, Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac observed spectroscopic lines due to gadolinium in samples of didymium and gadolinite; French chemist Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran separated gadolinia, the oxide of Gadolinium, from Mosander's yttria in 1886. The element itself was isolated only recently.
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| In older literature the natural form of the element is often called an "earth", meaning that element came from the Earth.
Accordingly - Gadolinium is the element that comes from the earth, gadolinia. Earths are compounds of the element and one or more other elements. Two common combining elements are oxygen and sulfur. For example, gadolinia contains gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3).
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| Notes
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| Gadolinium becomes superconductive below a critical temperature of 1.083 K (-272.067°C). It is strongly magnetic at room temperature. |
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| Hazards
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| As with the other lanthanoids, gadolinium compounds are of low to moderate toxicity, although their toxicity has not been investigated in detail.
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| Powder may react with water or moisture. The powder is highly flammable. |
