It can be alloyed with stainless steel to improve some of its mechanical properties and used as a doping agent in fiber optic cable where it can be used as an amplifier. One of ytterbium's isotopes is being considered as a radiation source for portable X-ray machines.
Estimated Oceanic Abundance : 8. Number of Stable Isotopes : 7 View all isotope data. Electron Shell Configuration :. Ytterbium Previous Isotopes Next. In its metallic form, ytterbium is a bright and shiny metal that is both ductile and malleable and is more reactive than the other lanthanide metals, quickly tarnishing in air as it reacts with oxygen.
Seven naturally occurring isotopes of ytterbium are known ranging from mass numbers to In addition, ten radioactive isotopes are also known; these isotopes are unstable and break down into other isotopes giving out radiation in the process.
Ytterbium in particular emits gamma rays. Gamma rays are similar to X-rays in that they pass through soft materials and tissues but are blocked by more dense materials such as bone. In this regard, small amounts of Yb have been exploited in portable X-ray machines that require no electricity and are much easier to carry around than conventional X-ray machines-useful for radiography of small objects!
A second intriguing possibility is the use of elemental ytterbium is in super accurate atomic clocks. The isotope Yb has the potential to keep time more accurately than the current gold standard, which is a caesium fountain clock that is accurate to within a second every million years. Then no one will have any excuse for being late!
The only ytterbium compound of historical commercial use is ytterbium oxide Yb2O3 ; this is used to make alloys and special types of glass and ceramics. These special materials or phosphors are being devised as alternatives to europium and terbium phosphors in anti forgery security inks and in bank notes.
Instead of placing the bank note under UV light to see the security encoding, an infra red laser pen is used to reveal the luminescence colours of erbium, clever hey? Terbium compounds are currently used as luminescent probes in biological and biomedical research, but they emit visible light. In the research community, luminescent ytterbium compounds that give out light in the near infra red around nm are of current interest and are being developed for use as alternative luminescent probes. This means, that unlike Eu or Tb, which emit visible light, the light is in invisible to our eyes.
Human tissue is a lot more transparent to near infra red radiation than to visible light, which means that imaging with near infra red would access greater tissue depths and so give us more detailed information regarding a specific biological event or process.
Ytterbium is also used in some laser systems and ytterbium fibre laser amplifiers are found in commercial and industrial applications where they are used in marking and engraving.
Ytterbium compounds are capable of absorbing light in the near infra red part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which has been exploited to convert radiant energy into electrical energy in devices coupled to solar cells. Additionally, ytterbium compounds are often more potent catalysts than their lanthanide counterparts. They are useful for many organic transformations and are finding increasing use in the chemical industry.
Well, that was ytterbium, definitely an interesting and fascinating element with many uses as diverse as atomic clocks and solar cells and definitely different from the other lanthanides. Different indeed with that range of uses. That was Manchester University's Louise Natrajan with the unique chemistry of ytterbium. Now next week, we've got an explosive element and I'll give one you guess as to who it's named after.
When the bomb exploded on November the first, , it produced an explosion with the power of over 10 million tonnes of TNT - five hundred times the destructive power of the Nagasaki explosion.
This was very much a test device - weighing over 80 tons and requiring a structure around 50 feet high to support it, meaning that it could never have been deployed - but it proved, all too well, the capability of the thermonuclear weapon. And in the moments of that intense explosion it produced a brand new element. There among the ash and charred remains of coral were found a couple of hundred atoms of element 99, later to be called einsteinium.
Brian Clegg will be providing more insight into the reactions and naming of einsteinium in next week's Chemistry in its element. Until then I'm Meera Senthilingam and thank you for listening. Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld. Click here to view videos about Ytterbium.
View videos about. Help Text. Learn Chemistry : Your single route to hundreds of free-to-access chemistry teaching resources. We hope that you enjoy your visit to this Site. We welcome your feedback. Data W. Haynes, ed. Version 1. Coursey, D. Schwab, J. Tsai, and R. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions version 4. Periodic Table of Videos , accessed December Podcasts Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Download our free Periodic Table app for mobile phones and tablets. Explore all elements. D Dysprosium Dubnium Darmstadtium. E Europium Erbium Einsteinium. F Fluorine Francium Fermium Flerovium. G Gallium Germanium Gadolinium Gold. I Iron Indium Iodine Iridium. K Krypton. O Oxygen Osmium Oganesson. U Uranium. V Vanadium. X Xenon. All rights reserved.
Atomic number. Ytterbium Ytterbium is a soft, malleable and rather ductile element that exhibits a bright silvery luster. Applications Ytterbium is sometimes associated with yttrium or other related elements and is used in certain steels. Ytterbium in the environment Ytterbium is found with other rare earth elements in several rare minerals as gadolinite, monazite, and xenotime. Natural ytterbium is a mix of seven stable isotopes.
World production of ytterbium is around 50 tonnes per year. Ion-exchange and solvent extraction techniques have simplified the separation of the rare earths from one another. Ytterby is the site of a quarry that yielded many unusual minerals containing rare earths and other elements. Ytterbium has few uses.
It can be alloyed with stainless steel to improve some of its mechanical properties and used as a doping agent in fiber optic cable.
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