 Discovery Information
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| Who: Johann Gadolin |
| When: 1794 |
| Where: Finland |
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| Name Origin
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| From the town of Ytterby, Sweden. |
| "Yttrium" in different languages. |
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| Sources
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| This element is found in almost all rare earth minerals (including monazite, xenotime, and yttria (Y2O3)) and in uranium ores but is never found in nature as a free element. Annual production is around 400 tons.
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| Important mining occurs in the USA, Russia, Norway and Madagascar.
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| Abundance
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| Universe: 0.007 ppm (by weight) |
| Sun: 0.01 ppm (by weight) |
| Carbonaceous meteorite: 1.9 ppm |
| Earth's Crust: 30 ppm |
| Seawater: 9 x 10-6 ppm
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| Uses
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| Combined with europium to make red phosphors for colour TVs. Yttrium oxide and iron oxide combine to form a crystal garnet used in radars. It is also used to increase the strength of aluminium and magnesium alloys. Also used in lasers, camera lenses and fireproof bricks. Yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) has a hardness of 8.5 and is a simulated diamond.
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| Yttrium was used as a "secret" element in a superconductor developed at the University of Houston, YBaCuO. This superconductor
operated above 90K, an amazing feat because it can operate at above liquid nitrogen's boiling point. (Y1.2Ba0.8CuO4). The matter created was a multi-crystal multi-phase mineral, of which most were black and green.
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| History
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| Yttrium was discovered by Finnish chemist, physicist, and mineralogist Johann Gadolin in 1794 and isolated by Friedrich Wöhler in 1828 as an impure extract of yttria through the reduction of yttrium anhydrous chloride (YCl3) with potassium. Yttria (Y2O3) is the oxide of yttrium and was discovered by Johann Gadolin in 1794 in a gadolinite mineral from Ytterby.
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| In 1843, the great Swedish chemist Carl Mosander was able to show that yttria could be divided into the oxides (or earths) of three different elements. "Yttria" was the name
which was retained for the most basic one, which also happened to comprise the bulk of the crude mixture (typically about
two-thirds) and the others were re-named erbia and terbia. (Later in the 19th century, both of these would also be shown to
be complex, although the names would be retained for the most characteristic component of each.)
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| A quarry is located near the village of Ytterby that yielded many unusual minerals that contained rare earths and other elements.
The elements erbium, terbium, ytterbium, and yttrium have all been named after this same small village.
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| Notes
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| Lunar rock samples from the Apollo program have a relatively high yttrium content. |
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| Hazards
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| Although most people will never come in to contact with compounds containing this element it worth knowing that they are highly toxic. Long-term exposure can cause lung or liver damage.
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