Element 70 - ytterbium

Behrsing, Thomas;Deacon, Glen B.;Junk, Peter C.

Abstract

Ytterbium is the penultimate element of the lanthanoid series. It is thus one of the heavy lanthanoid elements and lies between thulium and lutetium. Its discovery is attributed to the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1878. It was the fourth element (the others are yttrium, erbium, and terbium) to be isolated from the mineral ‘ytterbite’, later named gadolinite (Fig. 1), which was obtained from the feldspar mine in the village of Ytterby on Resarö Island in the vicinity of Vaxholm in Sweden. These days, it is usually sourced from monazite though it is present in higher amounts in the less common mineral xenotime, which is a heavy rare earth mineral, substantially YPO₄. The name ytterbium is the ultimate tribute to Ytterby.

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Australian Journal of Chemistry

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1445-0038

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CSIRO Publishing

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DOI

10.1071/CH19527