Yttrium

Element Name: Yttrium
Atomic Number: 39
Atomic Mass: 88.90585
Atomic Symbol: Y
Melting Point: 1522° C
Boiling Point: 3345° C

Yttrium is a soft, silvery, lustrous transition metal that demonstrates many properties similar to Rare Earths. Johan Gadolin discovered it in 1794, but it wasn’t until 1828 that Friedrich Wohler collected an impure sample. Pure yttrium is fairly stable in air because it forms a thin oxide layer on its surface. Fine shavings of yttrium are not stable in air because there is not enough material to form this oxide layer. Turnings of yttrium auto-ignite if heated above 400° C. Yttrium-89 is the only isotope found in nature, but at least 31 other isotopes exist. Yttrium is a trivalent (3+) ion that typically forms white compounds. It has an exceptionally high affinity for oxygen – possibly the highest of any element.

Interesting Facts:

Yttrium was found in samples of moon rock collected during the Apollo missions. It had a range of 54 ppm to 213 ppm yttrium content, compared to the earth’s 33 ppm.  The name “Yttrium” comes from the Swedish town of Ytterby where an ore containing yttrium was found. Yttrtium-90 is a radioactive isotope of yttrium that’s used in the treatment of several cancers and also in precision medical needles. Almost all living creatures contain small amounts of yttrium, but it serves no apparent biological function. Isotopes of yttrium are very common byproducts of nuclear fission. The yttrium found in the solar system today likely came from stellar nucleosynthesis. Incidentally, yttrium-90 and yttrium-91 are valuable in nuclear waste management. Yttrium’s least stable isotope has a half-life of 150 nanoseconds (0.000000150 seconds).

Sources:

Yttrium can be found in almost all rare-earth minerals. This list includes monazite sand, bastnasite, xenotime, samarskite, fergusonite, and uranium ores. Despite being stable in air, yttrium is never found in its elemental form in nature. It’s the 28th most common element on earth, and can even be found in soil in concentrations varying from 10 to 150 ppm (with an average of 23 ppm). In the future the moon might be a viable place to mine yttrium.

Industrial Uses:

Yttrium doped with europium is used to make red color phosphors in TV tubes. Yttrium is used in alloys of aluminum and magnesium to increase their strength. Ethylene polymerization uses yttrium as a catalyst. Yttrium oxide is the quintessential component of YBCO (yttrium barium copper oxide), a superconductor that works at relatively high temperatures. It becomes superconductive at -178° C, which is significant because it can be kept in this range with liquid nitrogen instead of liquid helium. Yttrium iron garnets are effective microwave filters. Yttrium oxide has a high melting point and can make glass and ceramics have desirable shock absorption and expansion properties.

Works Cited

“Yttrium.” Chemicool Periodic Table. Chemicool.com, 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 July
2016.
“Yttrium.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 July 2016.
“Facts About Yttrium.” Livescience. Livescience.com, 21 May 2013. Web. 26 July 2016.
“Yttrium Facts.” Softschools.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 July 2016.