Erbium

History

• Erbium, one of the so-called rare-earth elements on the lanthanide series, is found in the minerals mentioned under dysprosium.
• In 1842 Mosander separated "yttria" found in the mineral gadolinite, into three fractions which he called yttria, erbia, and terbia.
• The names erbia and terbia became confused in this early period.
• After 1860, Mosander's terbia was known as erbia, and after 1877, the earlier known erbia became terbia.
• The erbia of this period was later shown to consist of five oxides, now known as erbia, scandia, holmia, thulia and ytterbia.
• By 1905 Urbain and James independently succeeded in isolating fairly pure Er2O3.
• Klemm and Bommer first produced reasonably pure erbium metal in 1934 by reducing the anhydrous chloride with potassium vapor.

Properties

• The pure metal is soft and malleable and has a bright, silvery, metallic luster.
• As with other rare-earth metals, its properties depend to a certain extent on the impurities present.
• The metal is fairly stable in air and does not oxidize as rapidly as some of the other rare-earth metals.
• Naturally occurring erbium is a mixture of six isotopes, all of which are stable.
• Nine radioactive isotopes of erbium are also recognized.

Costs

Uses

• Erbium is finding nuclear and metallurgical uses.
• Added to vanadium, for example, erbium lowers the hardness and improves workability. Most of the rare-earth oxides have sharp absorption bands in the visible, ultraviolet, and near infrared.
• This proerty, associated with the electronic structure, gives beautiful pastel colors to many of the rare-earth salts.
• Erbium oxide gives a pink color and has been used as a colorant in glasses and porcelain enamel glazes.