Chemical Element: lutetium
(Modern Latin: chemical element; from Gaulish-Latin, Lutetia, a fortified town of a Gaulish tribe of the Parisii, the ancient name of Paris; rare earth)
Chemical-Element Information
Symbol: LuAtomic number: 71
Year discovered: 1907-1908
Discovered by: Georges Urbain (1872-1938), a French chemist, and by Carl Auer, Freiherr von Welsbach (1858-1929), an Austrian chemist, working independently.
- In 1907, Georges Urbain described a process by which Marignac’s ytterbium (1879) could be separated into the two elements, ytterbium (neoytterbium) and lutetium.
- These elements were identical with “aldebaranium” and “cassiopeium”, independently discovered by von Welsbach at about the same time.
- Pure metal lutetium has been isolated only in recent years and is one of the more difficult to prepare.
- It can be produced by the reduction of anhydrous by an alkali or alkaline earth metal.
- The metal is silvery white and relatively stable in air.
- It is a rare earth metal and perhaps the most expensive of all rare elements.
Name in other languages:
French: lutécium
German: Lutetium
Italian: lutezio
Spanish: lutecio
Information about other elements may be seen at this Chemical Elements List.
A special unit about words that include chemo-, chem- may be seen here.