Erbium
Erbium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pronunciation | /ˈɜːrbiəm/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearance | silvery white | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Er) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Erbium in the periodic table | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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kJ/mol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Heat of vaporization | 280 kJ/mol | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Molar heat capacity | 28.12 J/(mol·K) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vapor pressure
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Atomic properties | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discovery | Carl Gustaf Mosander (1843) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Isotopes of erbium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Erbium is a
Erbium's principal uses involve its pink-colored Er3+ ions, which have optical fluorescent properties particularly useful in certain laser applications. Erbium-doped glasses or crystals can be used as optical amplification media, where Er3+ ions are optically pumped at around 980 or 1480 nm and then radiate light at 1530 nm in stimulated emission. This process results in an unusually mechanically simple
In addition to optical fiber amplifier-lasers, a large variety of medical applications (e.g. dermatology, dentistry) rely on the erbium ion's 2940 nm emission (see Er:YAG laser) when lit at another wavelength, which is highly absorbed in water in tissues, making its effect very superficial. Such shallow tissue deposition of laser energy is helpful in laser surgery, and for the efficient production of steam which produces enamel ablation by common types of dental laser.
Characteristics
Physical properties
A
Erbium is ferromagnetic below 19 K, antiferromagnetic between 19 and 80 K and paramagnetic above 80 K.[10]
Erbium can form propeller-shaped atomic clusters Er3N, where the distance between the erbium atoms is 0.35 nm. Those clusters can be isolated by encapsulating them into fullerene molecules, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy.[11]
Like most
Chemical properties
Erbium metal retains its luster in dry air, however will tarnish slowly in moist air and burns readily to form erbium(III) oxide:[12]
- 4 Er + 3 O2 → 2 Er2O3
Erbium is quite electropositive and reacts slowly with cold water and quite quickly with hot water to form erbium hydroxide:[13]
- 2 Er (s) + 6 H2O (l) → 2 Er(OH)3 (aq) + 3 H2 (g)
Erbium metal reacts with all the halogens:[14]
- 2 Er (s) + 3 F2 (g) → 2 ErF3 (s) [pink]
- 2 Er (s) + 3 Cl2 (g) → 2 ErCl3 (s) [violet]
- 2 Er (s) + 3 Br2 (g) → 2 ErBr3 (s) [violet]
- 2 Er (s) + 3 I2 (g) → 2 ErI3 (s) [violet]
Erbium dissolves readily in dilute sulfuric acid to form solutions containing hydrated Er(III) ions, which exist as rose red [Er(OH2)9]3+ hydration complexes:[14]
- 2 Er (s) + 3 H2SO4 (aq) → 2 Er3+ (aq) + 3 SO2−
4 (aq) + 3 H2 (g)
Isotopes
Naturally occurring erbium is composed of 6 stable
The isotopes of erbium range in
Er
, is electron capture, and the primary mode after is beta decay. The primary decay products before 166
Er
are element 67 (holmium) isotopes, and the primary products after are element 69 (thulium) isotopes.[15]
Compounds
Oxides
Erbium(III) oxide (also known as erbia) is the only known oxide of erbium, first isolated by Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843, and first obtained in pure form in 1905 by Georges Urbain and Charles James.[16] It has a cubic structure resembling the bixbyite motif. The Er3+ centers are octahedral.[17] The formation of erbium oxide is accomplished by burning erbium metal.[18] Erbium oxide is insoluble in water and soluble in mineral acids.
Halides
Erbium(III) bromide is a violet solid. It is used, like other metal bromide compounds, in water treatment, chemical analysis and for certain crystal growth applications.[28] Erbium(III) iodide[29] is a slightly pink compound that is insoluble in water. It can be prepared by directly reacting erbium with iodine.[30]
Organoerbium compounds
Organoerbium compounds are very similar to
History
Erbium (for
Erbia and terbia, however, were confused at this time. A spectroscopist mistakenly switched the names of the two elements during spectroscopy. After 1860, terbia was renamed erbia and after 1877 what had been known as erbia was renamed terbia. Fairly pure Er2O3 was independently isolated in 1905 by Georges Urbain and Charles James. Reasonably pure erbium metal was not produced until 1934 when Wilhelm Klemm and Heinrich Bommer reduced the anhydrous chloride with potassium vapor.[39] It was only in the 1990s that the price for Chinese-derived erbium oxide became low enough for erbium to be considered for use as a colorant in art glass.[40]
Occurrence
The concentration of erbium in the Earth crust is about 2.8 mg/kg and in seawater 0.9 ng/L.[41] (Concentration of less abundant elements may vary with location by several orders of magnitude[42] making the relative abundance unreliable). Like other rare earths, this element is never found as a free element in nature but is found bound in
The principal commercial sources of erbium are from the minerals xenotime and euxenite, and most recently, the ion adsorption clays of southern China. Consequently, China has now become the principal global supplier of this element.[44] In the high-yttrium versions of these ore concentrates, yttrium is about two-thirds of the total by weight, and erbia is about 4–5%. When the concentrate is dissolved in acid, the erbia liberates enough erbium ion to impart a distinct and characteristic pink color to the solution. This color behavior is similar to what Mosander and the other early workers in the lanthanides would have seen in their extracts from the gadolinite minerals of Ytterby.
Production
Crushed minerals are attacked by hydrochloric or sulfuric acid that transforms insoluble rare-earth oxides into soluble chlorides or sulfates. The acidic filtrates are partially neutralized with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) to pH 3–4. Thorium precipitates out of solution as hydroxide and is removed. After that the solution is treated with ammonium oxalate to convert rare earths into their insoluble oxalates. The oxalates are converted to oxides by annealing. The oxides are dissolved in nitric acid that excludes one of the main components, cerium, whose oxide is insoluble in HNO3. The solution is treated with magnesium nitrate to produce a crystallized mixture of double salts of rare-earth metals. The salts are separated by ion exchange. In this process, rare-earth ions are sorbed onto suitable ion-exchange resin by exchange with hydrogen, ammonium or cupric ions present in the resin. The rare earth ions are then selectively washed out by suitable complexing agent.[41] Erbium metal is obtained from its oxide or salts by heating with calcium at 1450 °C under argon atmosphere.[41]
Applications
Lasers and optics
A large variety of medical applications (i.e. dermatology, dentistry) utilize erbium ion's 2940 nm emission (see Er:YAG laser), which is highly absorbed in water (absorption coefficient about 12000/cm). Such shallow tissue deposition of laser energy is necessary for laser surgery, and the efficient production of steam for laser enamel ablation in dentistry.[45]
Erbium-doped
Other applications
When added to
Erbium is used in nuclear technology in neutron-absorbing control rods.[9][50] or as a burnable poison in nuclear fuel design.[51]
Biological role and precautions
Erbium does not have a biological role, but erbium salts can stimulate
References
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- ^ "Erbium (Er) | AMERICAN ELEMENTS ®". American Elements: The Materials Science Company. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
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- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-850340-8.
- ^ Jackson, M. (2000). "Magnetism of Rare Earth" (PDF). The IRM Quarterly. 10 (3): 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-07-12. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
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- ^ a b "Chemical reactions of Erbium". Webelements. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
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{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ 苏伟涛, 李斌, 刘定权,等. 氟化铒薄膜晶体结构与红外光学性能的关系[J]. 物理学报, 2007, 56(5):2541-2546.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Brauer, G., ed. (1963). Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry (2nd ed.). New York: Academic Press.
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- ^ Elements, American. "Erbium Bromide". American Elements. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ISBN 9781439814628. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
- ^ Elements, American. "Erbium Iodide". American Elements. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- ^ Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 1248–9
- doi:10.1080/14786444308644728. Note: The first part of this article, which does NOT concern erbium, is a translation of: C. G. Mosander (1842) "Något om Cer och Lanthan" [Some (news) about cerium and lanthanum], Förhandlingar vid de Skandinaviske naturforskarnes tredje möte (Stockholm)[Transactions of the Third Scandinavian Scientist Conference (Stockholm)], vol. 3, pp. 387–398.
- ^ Weeks, Mary Elvira (1956). The discovery of the elements (6th ed.). Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education.
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- ^ Marshall, James L. Marshall; Marshall, Virginia R. Marshall (2015). "Rediscovery of the elements: The Rare Earths–The Beginnings" (PDF). The Hexagon: 41–45. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ^ Marshall, James L. Marshall; Marshall, Virginia R. Marshall (2015). "Rediscovery of the elements: The Rare Earths–The Confusing Years" (PDF). The Hexagon: 72–77. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
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- ^ "Erbium". Royal Society of Chemistry. 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- ^ "Facts About Erbium". Live Science. July 23, 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
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- ^ ISBN 978-0-07-049439-8. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
- ^ a b c ABUNDANCE OF ELEMENTS IN THE EARTH’S CRUST AND IN THE SEA, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 97th edition (2016–2017), p. 14-17 Cite error: The named reference "CRC" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Early paper on the use of displacement ion-exchange chromatography to separate rare earths: Spedding, F. H.; Powell, J. E. (1954). "A practical separation of yttrium group rare earths from gadolinite by ion-exchange". Chemical Engineering Progress. 50: 7–15.
- ^ Asad, F. M. M. (2010). Optical Properties of Dye Sensitized Zinc Oxide Thin Film Deposited by Sol-gel Method (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia).
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- ^ Kittel, Peter (ed.). Advances in Cryogenic Engineering. Vol. 39a.
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Further reading
- Guide to the Elements – Revised Edition, Albert Stwertka (Oxford University Press; 1998), ISBN 0-19-508083-1.