Lutetium(III) oxide, a white solid, is a cubic compound of

lutetium Lutetium is a chemical element with the symbol Lu and atomic number 71. It is a silvery white metal, which resists corrosion in dry air, but not in moist air. Lutetium is the last element in the lanthanide series, and it is traditionally counted am ...

sometimes used in the preparation of specialty

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

es. It is also called lutecia. It is a lanthanide oxide, also known as a rare earth.Lutetium Oxide. 1997-2007. Metall Rare Earth Limited. http://www.metall.com.cn/luo.htm

History

In 1879,

Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac (24 April 1817 – 15 April 1894) was a Swiss chemist whose work with atomic weights suggested the possibility of isotopes and the packing fraction of nuclei. His study of the rare earth elements led to h ...

(1817–1894), a Swiss chemist, claimed to have discovered ytterbium, but he had found a mixture of elements. In 1907, a French chemist

Georges Urbain Georges Urbain (12 April 1872 – 5 November 1938) was a French chemist, a professor of the Sorbonne, a member of the Institut de France, and director of the Institute of Chemistry in Paris. Much of his work focused on the rare earths, isolating a ...

(1872–1938) reported that ytterbium was a mixture of two new elements and was not a single element. Two other chemists,

Carl Auer von Welsbach Carl Auer von Welsbach (1 September 1858 – 4 August 1929), who received the Austrian noble title of Freiherr Auer von Welsbach in 1901, was an Austrian scientist and inventor, who separated didymium into the elements neodymium and praseo ...

(1858–1929) and

Charles James Charles James may refer to: * Charles James (British Army officer) (1757/8–1821), English army officer and writer * Charles James (attorney) (born 1954), former U.S. assistant attorney general * Charles James (American football) (born 1990), Amer ...

(1880–1926) also extracted lutetium(III) oxide around the same time. All three scientists successfully separated Marignac's ytterbia into oxides of two elements which were eventually named

ytterbium Ytterbium is a chemical element with the symbol Yb and atomic number 70. It is a metal, the fourteenth and penultimate element in the lanthanide series, which is the basis of the relative stability of its +2 oxidation state. However, like the othe ...

and

). None of these chemists were able to isolate pure lutetium. James' separation was of very high quality, but Urbain and Auer von Welsbach published before him.

Uses

Lutetium(III) oxide is an important raw material for laser crystals. It also has specialized uses in ceramics, glass, phosphors, and lasers. Lutetium(III) oxide is used as a catalyst in cracking, alkylation, hydrogenation, and polymerization. The band gap of lutetium oxide is 5.5 eV.

References

{{Oxides Lutetium compounds Sesquioxides