Yttrium (39)

Yttrium (IT-REE-UM) has a silvery-metallic luster. Yttrium turnings ignite in air. Yttrium is found in most rare-earth minerals. Moon rocks contain yttrium and yttrium is used as a "phosphor" to produce the red color in television screens.

•Name: Yttrium
•Symbol: Y
•Atomic number: 39
•Atomic weight: ...88.90585
•Standard state: solid at 298 K
•CAS Registry ID: 7440-65-5
•Group in periodic table: 3
•Period in periodic table: 5
•Block in periodic table: d-block
•Color: silvery white
•Classification: Metallic

Historical information

Yttrium was discovered by Johann Gadolin at 1794 in Finland. Origin of name is the village of "Ytterby" near Vaxholm in Sweden. Yttria (yttrium oxide, Y2O3), was discovered by Johann Gadolin in 1794 in a mineral called gadolinite from Ytterby. Ytterby is the site of a quarry in Sweden which contains many unusual minerals containing erbium, terbium, and ytterbium as well as yttrium. Friedrich Wohler obtained the impure element in 1828 by reduction of the anhydrous chloride (YCl3) with potassium.

Physical properties

•Melting point: 1799 [or 1526 °C (2779 °F)] K
•Boiling point: 3609 [or 3336 °C (6037 °F)] K
•Density of solid: 4472 kg m-3

Orbital properties

•Ground state electron configuration: [Kr].4d1.5s2
•Shell structure: 2.8.18.9.2
•Term symbol: 2D3/2

Isolation

Yttrium metal is available commercially so it is not normally necessary to make it in the laboratory. Yttrium is found in lathanoid minerals and the extraction of the yttrium and the lanthanoid metals from the ores is highly complex. Initially, the metals are extracted as salts from the ores by extraction with sulphuric acid (H2SO4), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Modern purification techniques for these lanthanoid salt mixtures involve selective complexation techniques, solvent extractions, and ion exchange chromatography.

Pure yttrium is available through the reduction of YF3 with calcium metal.

2YF3 + 3Ca → 2Y + 3CaF2

Interesting Facts...

Yttrium (English/French/German/Swedish) Ittrio (Italian) Ytrio (Spanish)

Yttrium is often used to make alloys with other metals. An alloy is made by melting and mixing two or more metals. The mixture has properties different from those of the individual metals. Two of yttrium's most interesting applications are in lasers and superconducting materials.

A laser is a device for producing very bright light of a single color. One of the most popular lasers is made of yttrium, aluminum, and garnet. One of the most widely used lasers today is the yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) Laser. YAG Lasers often contain other elements. These elements change the kind of light produced by the laser in one way or another. The Laser is said to be doped with another element if it contains a small amount of that element. An example of this kind of laser is one doped with neodymium. The neodymium-doped YAG (Nd:YAG) laser has been used to make Long distance measurements (for my 2171 friends - think of the MULE and the range finders).

Garnet is a gem-like material with a sand-like composition. Superconducting materials are substances with no resistance to the flow of an electric current. An electric current that begins to flow through them never stops. Superconducting materials may have many very important applications in the future.

Yttrium phosphors have long been used in color television sets and in computer monitors.

None of the radioactive isotopes of yttrium has any important commercial use. However, yttrium-90 is now being tested as a treatment for cancer. Radiation given off by the isotope kills cancer cells. Researchers believe that yttrium-90 may find wider use in the future for treating cancer. One advantage of using this isotope is that is easy to obtain. It is produced when another radioactive isotope (strontium-90) breaks down. Strontium-90 is a by-product formed in nuclear power plants.