Yttrium Atomic Number: 39 Symbol: Y Atomic Weight: 88.

90585 Discovery: Johann Gadolin 1794 (Finland) Electron Configuration: [Kr] 5s1 4d1 Word Origin: Named for Ytterby, a village in Sweden near Vauxholm. Ytterby is the site of a quarry which yielded many minerals containing rare earths and other elements (erbium, terbium, and ytterbium). Isotopes: Natural yttrium is composed of yttrium-89 only. 19 unstable isotopes are also known. Properties: Yttrium has a metallic silver luster. It is relatively stable in air except when finely divided. Yttrium turnings will ignite in air if their temperature exceeds 400C. Uses: Yttrium oxides are a component of the phosphors used to produce the red color in television picture tubes. The oxides have potential use in ceramics and glass. Yttrium oxides have high melting points and impart shock resistance and low expansion to glass. Yttrium iron garnets are used to filter microwaves and as transmitters and transducers of acoustic energy. Yttrium aluminum garnets, with a hardness of 8.5, are used to simulate diamond gemstones. Small quantities of yttrium may be added to reduce the grain size in chromium, molybdenum, zirconium, and titanium, and to increase strength of aluminum and magnesium alloys. Yttrium is used as a deoxidizer for vanadium and other nonferrous metals. It is used as a catalyst in the polymerization of ethylene. Element Classification: Transition Metal Density (g/cc): 4.47 Melting Point (K): 1795 Boiling Point (K): 3611 Appearance: silvery, ductile, moderately reactive metal Atomic Radius (pm): 178

Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 19.8 Covalent Radius (pm): 162 Ionic Radius: 89.3 (+3e) Specific Heat (@20C J/g mol): 0.284 Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): 11.5 Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 367 Pauling Negativity Number: 1.22 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 615.4 Oxidation States: 3 Lattice Structure: hexagonal Lattice Constant (): 3.650 Lattice C/A Ratio: 1.571

Yttrium was discovered by Johan Gadolin, a Finnish chemist, while analyzing the composition of the mineral gadolinite ((Ce, La, Nd, Y)2FeBe2Si2O10) in 1789. Gadolinite, which was named for Johan Gadolin, was discovered several years earlier in a quarry near the town of Ytterby, Sweden. Today, yttrium is primarily obtained through an ion exchange process from monazite sand ((Ce, La, Th, Nd, Y)PO4), a material rich in rare earth elements. Although metallic yttrium is not widely used, several of its compounds are. Yttrium oxide (Y2O3) and yttrium orthovanadate (YVO4) are both combined with europium to produce the red phosphor used in color televisions. Garnets made from yttrium andiron (Y3Fe5O12) are used as microwave filters in microwave communications equipment. Garnets made from yttrium andaluminum (Y3Al5O12) are used in jewelry as simulated diamond.

This element is found in almost all rare-earth minerals and in uranium ores but is never

found in nature as a free element. Yttrium is commercially recovered from monazite sand (3% content, [(Ce, La, etc.)PO4]) and from bastnasite (0.2% content, [(Ce, La, etc.)(CO3)F]). It is commercially produced by reducing yttrium fluoride with calcium metal but it can also be produced using other techniques. It is difficult to separate from other rare earths and when extracted, is a dark gray powder. The original "rare earths" ceria (1803) and yttria (1794) reflect the great geochemical divide that occurs between the light and heavy lanthanoids due to "lanthanoid contraction". The lighter lanthanoids, with a larger radius, partition into minerals in sites with a higher coordination number (e.g. monazite), whereas the smaller heavy lanthanoids prefer a slightly lower coordination number (as in xenotime). The lighter lanthanoids are also more relatively abundant in the Earth's outer crust than the heavies, relative to the abundance in chondritic meteorites, due to size fractionation. Yttrium falls into the middle of the heavy group in size, and thus inevitably occurs with these in minerals, where it comprises about two-thirds of the mixed oxides by weight. This composition is typical of gadolinite, xenotime, and certain ion adsorption clays currently mined in the south of China. Lunar Rock samples from the Apollo program have relatively high yttrium content.