Lutetium

71

ytterbium ← lutetium → hafnium


Y
↑
Lu
↓
Lr




periodic table




General


Name, Symbol, Number

lutetium, Lu, 71


Chemical series
lanthanides


Group, Period, Block

n/a, 6, d


Appearance
silvery white 



Atomic mass
174.967(1) g/mol


Electron configuration
Xe 6s2 4f14 5d1


Electrons per shell
2, 8, 18, 32, 9, 2


Physical properties


Phase
solid


Density (near r.t.)
9.841 g/cm³


Liquid density at m.p.
9.3 g/cm³


Melting point
1925 K
(1652 °C, 3006 °F)


Boiling point
3675 K
(3402 °C, 6156 °F)


Heat of fusion
ca. 22 kJ/mol


Heat of vaporization
414 kJ/mol


Heat capacity
(25 °C) 26.86 J/(mol·K)




Vapor pressure


P/Pa
1
10
100
1 k
10 k
100 k


at T/K
1906
2103
2346
(2653)
(3072)
(3663)



Atomic properties


Crystal structure
hexagonal


Oxidation states
3
(weakly basic oxide)


Electronegativity
1.27 (Pauling scale)


Ionization energies
(more)

1st: 523.5 kJ/mol


2nd: 1340 kJ/mol


3rd: 2022.3 kJ/mol


Atomic radius
175 pm


Atomic radius (calc.)
217 pm


Covalent radius
160 pm


Miscellaneous


Magnetic ordering
no data


Electrical resistivity
(r.t.) (poly) 582 nΩ·m


Thermal conductivity
(300 K) 16.4 W/(m·K)


Thermal expansion
(r.t.) (poly) 9.9 µm/(m·K)


Speed of sound (thin rod)
(r.t.) 68.6 m/s


Shear modulus
27.2 GPa


Bulk modulus
47.6 GPa


Poisson ratio
0.261


Vickers hardness
1160 MPa


Brinell hardness
893 MPa


CAS registry number
7439-94-3


Notable isotopes




Main article: Isotopes of lutetium


iso

NA

half-life

DM

DE (MeV)

DP


173Lu

syn

1.37 y

ε

0.671

173Yb


174Lu

syn

3.31 y

ε

1.374

174Yb


175Lu

97.41%

Lu is stable with 104 neutrons


176Lu

2.59%

3.78×1010y

β-

1.193

176Hf


Lutetium (chemical symbol Lu, atomic number 71) is a silvery white, metallic element that usually occurs in association with yttrium. It is the heaviest and hardest of the rare earth elements.[1] It is sometimes used in metal alloys and as a catalyst in various processes.

Contents

1 Occurrence
2 History
3 Notable characteristics

3.1 Isotopes


4 Compounds
5 Applications
6 Precautions
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
11 Credits



Occurrence
Found with almost all other rare-earth metals but never by itself, lutetium is very difficult to separate from other elements. Consequently, it is also one of the most expensive metals, costing about six times as much per gram as gold.
The principal commercially viable ore of lutetium is the rare earth phosphate mineral monazite, which contains 0.003 percent of the element. Pure lutetium metal has only relatively recently been isolated and is very difficult to prepare (thus it is one of the most rare and expensive of the rare earth metals). It is separated from other rare earth elements by ion exchange and then obtained in the elemental form by reduction of anhydrous LuCl3 or LuF3 by either an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal.

History
Lutetium (Latin Lutetia meaning Paris) was independently discovered in 1907 by French scientist Georges Urbain and Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach. Both men found lutetium as an impurity in the mineral ytterbia which was thought by Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac (and most others) to consist entirely of the element ytterbium.
The separation of lutetium from Marignac's ytterbium was first described by Urbain and the naming honor therefore went to him. He chose the names neoytterbium (new ytterbium) and lutecium for the new element but neoytterbium was eventually reverted back to ytterbium and in 1949 the spelling of element 71 was changed to lutetium.
Welsbach proposed the names cassiopium for element 71 (after the constellation Cassiopeia) and albebaranium for the new name of ytterbium but these naming proposals were rejected (although many German scientists in the 1950s called the element 71 cassiopium).

Notable characteristics
A strict correlation between periodic table blocks and chemical series for neutral atoms would describe lutetium as a transition metal because it is in the d-block, but it is classified as a lanthanide according to IUPAC.[2]
Lutetium is corrosion-resistant trivalent metal that is relatively stable in air.

Isotopes
Naturally occurring lutetium is composed of one stable isotope Lu-175 (97.41 percent natural abundance). 33 radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable being Lu-176 with a half-life of 3.78 × 1010 years (2.59 percent natural abundance), Lu-174 with a half-life of 3.31 years, and Lu-173 with a half-life of 1.37 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lifes that are less than nine days, and the majority of these have half lifes that are less than a half an hour. This element also has 18 meta states, with the most stable being Lu-177m (t½ 160.4 days), Lu-174m (t½ 142 days) and Lu-178m (t½ 23.1 minutes).
The isotopes of lutetium range in atomic weight from 149.973 (Lu-150) to 183.961 (Lu-184). The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, Lu-175, is electron capture (with some alpha and positron emission), and the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay products before Lu-175 are element 70 (ytterbium) isotopes and the primary products after are element 72 (hafnium) isotopes.

Compounds
Fluoride:
lutetium(III) fluoride (LuF3)
Chloride:
lutetium(III) chloride (LuCl3)
Bromide:
lutetium(III) bromide (LuBr3)
Iodide:
lutetium(III) iodide (LuI3)
Oxide:
lutetium(III) oxide (Lu2O3)
Sulfide:
lutetium(III) sulfide (Lu2S3)
Nitride:
lutetium(III) nitride (LuN)
Intermetallic compounds:

Lutetium aluminum garnet (Al5Lu3O12)
Applications
As lutetium is very expensive to obtain in useful quantities, it has few commercial uses. Stable lutetium, however, can be used as a catalyst in petroleum cracking in refineries. It can also be used to catalyze reactions such as alkylation, hydrogenation, and polymerization.
Lutetium aluminum garnet has been proposed for use as a lens material in high refractive index immersion lithography.
Cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) is currently the preferred compound for detectors in positron emission tomography (PET.)[3]

Precautions
Like other rare-earth metals lutetium is regarded as having a low toxicity rating but it and especially its compounds should be handled with care nonetheless. Metal dust of this element is a fire and explosion hazard. Lutetium plays no biological role in the human body but is thought to help stimulate metabolism.

See also
Chemical element
Inner transition metal
Metal
Periodic table
Positron emission tomography
Notes

↑ The term "rare earth metals" (or "rare earth elements") is a trivial name applied to 16 chemical elements: scandium, yttrium, and 14 of the 15 lanthanides (excluding promethium), which occur naturally on Earth. Some definitions also include the actinides. The word "earth" is an obsolete term for oxide. The term "rare earth" is discouraged by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), as these elements are relatively abundant in the Earth's crust.

↑ IUPAC Provisional Recommendations for the Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (2004) (online draft of an updated version of the "Red Book" IR 3-6) Retrieved October 6, 2007.

↑ Thompson, C.J. “Instrumentation.” In: Wahl, R.L. (ed.). Principles and Practice of Positron Emission Tomography. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2002.


ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Chang, Raymond. Chemistry. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 2006. ISBN 0073221031
Cotton, F. Albert, and Geoffrey Wilkinson. Advanced Inorganic Chemistry. 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1980. ISBN 0-471-02775-8
Greenwood, N.N. and A. Earnshaw. Chemistry of the Elements. 2nd ed. Oxford, U.K.; Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier Science, 1998. ISBN 0750633654 Online version Retrieved October 6, 2007.
Jones, Adrian P., Frances Wall, and C. Terry Williams, eds. Rare Earth Minerals: Chemistry, Origin and Ore Deposits. The Mineralogical Society Series. London, UK: Chapman and Hall, 1996. ISBN 0412610302
Stwertka, Albert. Guide to the Elements. Rev. ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-508083-1
"Lutetium" Los Alamos National Laboratory, Chemistry Division. Retrieved Retrieved October 6, 2007.
External links
All links retrieved November 4, 2022.

WebElements.com - Lutetium
It's Elemental - Lutetium

Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article
in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

Lutetium  history
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Lutetium"
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.