Ytterbium has few uses. It can be alloyed with stainless steel to improve some of its mechanical properties and used as a doping agent in fiber optic cable where it can be used as an amplifier. One of ytterbium’s isotopes is being considered as a radiation source for portable X-ray machines.
Is ytterbium harmful to humans?
All compounds of ytterbium are treated as highly toxic, although studies appear to indicate that the danger is minimal. However, ytterbium compounds cause irritation to human skin and eyes, and some might be teratogenic. Metallic ytterbium dust can spontaneously combust, and the resulting fumes are hazardous.
Is ytterbium rare or common?
Ytterbium is the 44th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. It is one of the more common rare earths, present at about 2.7 to 8 parts per million in the crust. It is common in the mineral monazite.
What is ytterbium texture?
Ytterbium has a bright silvery luster, is soft, malleable, and quite ductile. One of the lanthanides, it is fairly stable in air but is readily attacked and dissolved by dilute and concentrated mineral acids and reacts slowly with water.
Is ytterbium a noble gas?
The ground state electronic configuration of Neutral Ytterbium atom is [Xe] 4f14 6s2. The portion of Ytterbium configuration that is equivalent to the noble gas of the preceding period, is abbreviated as [Xe].
How much is ytterbium worth?
It is expected that the price of ytterbium oxide will reach some 69 U.S. dollars per kilogram in 2017.
What is ytterbium found in?
1878Ytterbium / Discovered
What is the difference between yttrium and ytterbium?
Summary – Yttrium vs Ytterbium Yttrium is a chemical element having the symbol Y and atomic number 39, while Ytterbium is a chemical element having the symbol Yb and atomic number 70. The key difference between Yttrium and Ytterbium is that natural yttrium is non-radioactive, whereas ytterbium is usually radioactive.
What is special about ytterbium?
Ytterbium is a soft, malleable and rather ductile element that exhibits a bright silvery luster. A rare earth, the element is easily attacked and dissolved by mineral acids, slowly reacts with water, and oxidizes in air. The oxide forms a protective layer on the surface. Compounds of ytterbium are rare.
What does ytterbium look like?
Ytterbium is a bright, soft, silvery-white metal that is both ductile and malleable. It is a one of the rare earth metals. The metal tarnishes quickly in air and reacts slowly with water. It dissolves rapidly in mineral acids.
Is ytterbium a rare earth metal?
Ytterbium is a soft, malleable and rather ductile element that exhibits a bright silvery luster. A rare earth, the element is easily attacked and dissolved by mineral acids, slowly reacts with water, and oxidizes in air. Compounds of ytterbium are rare.
Is ytterbium natural or synthetic?
It is a rare earth metal, which despite its name, does not mean that it is hard to find. Rare earth metals are really hard to separate from each other. That’s why it took over 70 years to obtain a pure sample! Ytterbium has seven natural isotopes and twenty seven artificial isotopes.
What does the name ytterbium mean?
A rare divalent or trivalent, silvery, soft, malleable, and ductile metallic rare-earth element.Ytterbium has little practical application. Number 70 in the Periodic Table of Elements, ytterbium is named for the village of Ytterby, Sweden, where it was discovered. So were erbium, yttrium, and terbium. See also erbium and television.
What does ytterbium mean?
Definition of ytterbium. : a soft metallic element of the rare-earth group that occurs especially with other rare earth elements in minerals and that has few commercial uses — see Chemical Elements Table.
How was ytterbium discovered?
Ytterbium was discovered by the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in the year 1878. While examining samples of gadolinite, Marignac found a new component in the earth then known as erbia, and he named it ytterbia, for Ytterby , the Swedish village near where he found the new component of erbium.
What are the isotopes of ytterbium?
Seven naturally occurring isotopes of ytterbium are known. These isotopes are ytterbium-168, ytterbium-170, ytterbium-171, ytterbium-172, ytterbium-173, ytterbium-174, and ytterbium-176. Isotopes are two or more forms of an element. Isotopes differ from each other according to their mass number.
