Though yttrium was discovered in Scandinavia, it is far more plentiful in other countries. China, Russia, India, Malaysia and Australia are the leading producers of yttrium. In April , scientists discovered what they think is a massive deposit of rare earth metals , including yttrium, on a small Japanese island called Minamitori Island.
Yttrium can be found in most of the rare earth minerals, but has never been discovered in the Earth's crust as a freestanding element. Lunar rocks gathered during the Apollo moon missions contain yttrium. The human body also contains yttrium in tiny amounts, usually concentrated in the liver, kidneys, and bones. Before the era of flat-screen televisions, TV sets contained large cathode ray tubes, which were large glass tubes that projected images on the screen.
Yttrium oxide, doped with the element europium , provided the red color on millions of color-television sets. Yttrium oxide yttria is added to zirconium oxide zirconia to make an alloy that stabilizes the crystal structure of zirconia, which ordinarily changes with temperature. Synthetic garnets made with an yttrium-aluminum composite were commonly sold in the s as simulated diamonds and other gemstones, but they eventually gave way to the cubic zirconia, Gambogi said.
These days, yttrium aluminum garnets YAG are used as the crystals that amplify light in industrial lasers. Yttrium iron garnets are used for microwave filters, as well as in radar and communication technology. Yttrium is widely used to produce phosphors that are used in cell phones and larger display screens as well as general lighting. Yttrium in red phosphors in color television tubes led to widespread use in the s and '70s.
Fluorescent tubes linear and compact use significantly more yttrium per watt than LED bulbs. The radioactive isotope yttrium is used in radiation therapy to treat liver cancer and some other cancers. Subramanian said that yttrium was easier to work with and less expensive than many other elements. Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators.
Supply risk. Relative supply risk 9. Russia 3 USA Political stability of top producer Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Yttrium Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
This week, the last of the elements discovered in the small town of Ytterby and its compounds appear to have a multitude of uses.
Until about 20 years ago, most scientists had not heard of it, other than vaguely noting where it was in the periodic table, under scandium and above lanthanum. Some people might just have known that it was one of 4 chemical elements named after the small Swedish town of Ytterby, along with ytterbium, erbium and terbium. Prompting other scientists to dust off their Periodic Tables, and try switching the lanthanum portion for other similar metals.
This may not seem much of a temperature difference, but it meant that YBCO could be kept in the superconducting state using liquid nitrogen, rather than the much more expensive liquid helium.
This has inspired lots more studies over the past 20 years. The ultimate objective, the Holy Grail, is to find a material that would superconduct at room temperature, but no one has got there yet. There are many possible applications for YBCO; for example MRI scanners could be made to operate more cheaply at a higher temperature using liquid nitrogen coolant. At present, though, there are technical problems preventing these commercial applications. One is that in order to superconduct at 95K, the YBCO has to be slightly oxygen-deficient, to have just a bit less than the seven oxygen atoms per yttrium atom.
The exact amount is crucial, and tricky to achieve. Other problems include making the YBCO in the right state; a lot of research is going into making thin films of it and finding a way of making it into a continuous wire, rather than just an assembly of crystals packed together that are unable to conduct decent currents. Investigators are looking into depositing YBCO on top of flexible metal wires, and research into this continues.
Apart from this, there are lots of everyday applications for yttrium compounds In its compounds yttrium is always present as the yttrium three plus ion, which means that it is colourless and has no unpaired electrons; therefore it does not have any interesting magnetic or spectroscopic properties of its own.
The up side of this is that yttrium compounds make very good host materials for other lanthanides. The most familiar application lies in the red phosphor in cathode ray tubes, as used in traditional colour TV sets. This is made of yttrium oxysulphide, Y2O2S containing a small amount of trivalent europium ions.
Similarly, yttrium hosts are often used to accommodate terbium ions, which are green phosphors. Such materials are used in the "cool white" fluorescent lamps. Yttrium aluminium garnet, also known as YAG, is a very important synthetic mineral. It is used to make hard, artificial diamonds, which sparkle just like the real ones.
What is more, by introducing small quantities of lanthanide ions, materials with a range of useful properties can be made. Introduce a small amount of cerium for example, and you have a good yellow phosphor. And erbium gives you an infrared laser. Yttrium also finds use in fuel cells for powering cars and buses, computers and digital phones and, potentially, buildings.
A small amount of yttrium oxide is added to zirconium oxide to make what is known as yttria-stabilized zirconia also called YSZ.
That has the unusual property of conducting oxide ions, making it very useful in these fuel cells. YSZ is also used to make the lambda sensors fitted to the exhaust sytem of your car. These monitor the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gases and sends feedback to give the best air-fuel mixture into the engine. So, that is yttrium for you. Colourless, unspectacular, but undoubtedly fulfilling a lot of important supporting roles. And so the Oscar for best supporting role goes to, you guessed it, Yttrium.
Now next week we've got an element that could take us into another dimension. The real element is yet to be discovered - it's a blank space in the Periodic Table just below the halogens. Smith's , however, was a strange material that could be used to open a window to another dimension. He called it a magnetic monopole substance - one that instead of having poles, plural, like an ordinary magnet, had a pole. Now, whilst no reputable scientist would argue that a magnetic monopole could open an inter-dimensional portal, its existence isn't outside the realms of possibility and if recent reports are anything to go by, it could depend on an otherwise mundane metallic element that you can find skulking around near the bottom of the Periodic Table - holmium.
And Hayley Birch will be revealing the truth about such mythical monopoles in next week's Chemistry in its Element. Until then, I'm Meera Senthilingam and thank you for listening.
Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld. Click here to view videos about Yttrium. View videos about. Help Text. Learn Chemistry : Your single route to hundreds of free-to-access chemistry teaching resources.
We hope that you enjoy your visit to this Site. We welcome your feedback. Data W. Haynes, ed. Version 1. Coursey, D. Schwab, J. Tsai, and R. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions version 4. Periodic Table of Videos , accessed December Podcasts Produced by The Naked Scientists. Download our free Periodic Table app for mobile phones and tablets.
Explore all elements. D Dysprosium Dubnium Darmstadtium. E Europium Erbium Einsteinium. F Fluorine Francium Fermium Flerovium.
G Gallium Germanium Gadolinium Gold. I Iron Indium Iodine Iridium. K Krypton. O Oxygen Osmium Oganesson. U Uranium. V Vanadium. X Xenon. It could make the machine operate, rather than being lost as heat. There is only one naturally occurring isotope of yttrium, yttrium Isotopes are two or more forms of an element. Isotopes Yttrium samples. The number written to the right of the element's name is the mass number. The mass number represents the number of protons plus neutrons in the nucleus of an atom of the element.
The number of protons determines the element, but the number of neutrons in the atom of any one element can vary. Each variation is an isotope. About a dozen radioactive isotopes of yttrium are known also. A radioactive isotope is one that breaks apart and gives off some form of radiation. Radioactive isotopes are produced when very small particles are fired at atoms. These particles stick in the atoms and make them radioactive.
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 is now being tested as a treatment for cancer. Radiation given off by the isotope kills cancer cells. Researchers believe that yttrium 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 breaks down.
Strontium is a by-product formed in nuclear power plants. Yttrium is usually bought and sold in the form of yttrium oxide Y 2 O 3. However, the pure metal can be obtained by combining another compound of yttrium, yttrium fluoride YF 3 , with calcium metal at high temperatures:.
Traditionally, yttrium has had many of the same uses as the rare earth elements. For example, it has been used in phosphors. A phosphor is a material that shines when struck by electrons. The color of the phosphor depends on the elements of which it is made.
They have also been used in specialized fluorescent lights. In , about two-thirds of all the yttrium consumed was used for these purposes.
Yttrium alloys have some special uses as well. These alloys tend to be hard, resistant to wear, and resistant to corrosion rusting. They are used in cutting tools, seals, bearings, and jet engine coatings. Slightly less than a third of all yttrium used in went to applications like these.
One of the areas in which yttrium is becoming more important is in the manufacture of lasers. Lasers are devices for producing very intense beams of light of a single color. These beams are used for precision metal cutting and surgery. There is some hope that lasers may someday replace the dental drill. 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. In this kind of laser, a beam is fired at a far-away object. The time it takes for the beam to be reflected is then measured. The time is used to calculate the distance to the distant object. One application of this principle is used by space probes. The back side of the asteroid will be measured with a Nd:YAG laser.
Beams from the laser will be used to map surface features on the asteroid. The only yttrium compound of commercial interest is yttrium oxide Y 2 O 3.
Yttrium oxide is used to make phosphors for color television sets and in crystals used in microwave detection instruments. The back side of the asteroid Eros will be measured with a neodymium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet Nd:Yag laser. Yttrium has been found to be toxic to laboratory rats in high doses. However, there is little information about its effects on humans. In such cases, an element is usually treated as if it were dangerous.
Toggle navigation. Photo by: www.
0コメント