|
Home
News
Departments
Schools
Calendars
School
Board
For
Parents
Committees/
Commissions
Strategic
Plan
Policies
Kiddo!
For
Staff
Employment
Contact
Us
| |
|
|
|
| It
makes the green in your T.V. screen |
History:
|
Sweden, where terbium was
found |
Terbium
was discovered in Sweden in a village named Ytterby by a man
named Carl Gustave Mossander in 1843. Terbium is in the group
of lanthanide elements. Terbium is one of the rare earth-elements.
Terbium is found commercially in monazite sand and cerite, gadolinite
and other rare earths and minerals. Mossander proved that the
oxide that's denominated in Yttria was able to be decomposed
into three rare-earths all of which he called yttria. They were
a colorless oxide named erbia, a yellow colored earth called
terbia and some rosy earth. Gustave Mossander divided these
earths by fractional precipitation with hydroxide ammonia. The
proffesor of chemistry at the University of Geneva named Jean
Charles Galissard of marignac divided the terbia from the yttria.
He changed the names of the oxides and called terbia to the
erbia of Mossander. That denomination is still looked at today. |
| Uses: |
 A
flourescent light which terbiu was used
in |
Terbium is has some home and industrial uses.
Terbium oxide is what gives T.V. screens their green color and
it's used in X-ray screens. Sodium terbium borate is used in
solid-state devices. It's used in solid-state devices, special
lasers and semi conductors. Terbium is found in special lasers
and computer monitors. It's also in magneto-stridictive alloys
for submarine lamps and magneto-optic alloys for CD's. Terbum
is also found in some flourescent lights. Lastly terbium is
used in solid state devices. Terbium isn't really that widely
used. |
| How It's Obtained:
|
The Earth- where we get terbium |
Terbium is a rare earth metal found in monazite
sand. It's mined in Brazil, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, and
in some places in the U.S. You can get pure terbium by using
an ion exchange displacement process which is used for parting
rare-earth elements from their surroundings. In an ion exchange
displacement you get a terbium ion by taking away terbium flouride
with some calcium metal, terbium halide and an active metal.
You take those and place them in a tantalum crucibal and fire
them in a helium atmosphere. That gives you molten terbium halide
compund and wiht ;lots of active metal. Then you take a knife
and cut off the pure terbium. Terbium costs about $30/g. Terbium
is one of the top rarest of all of the lanthanide elements so
there are few commercial applications. |
| Appearence/Properties: |
A Sample of pure terbium |
Terbium is mostly stable in the air. It has
a silvery-gray color and is relatively soft, soft enough to
be cut with a knife. Terbium is both malleable
and ductle. There are two crytsal
modifications that exist with a transformation temperature of
1289 degrees celcius. Terbium's oxide
is a a dark maroon or chocolate color. Terbium has about twenty-one
iostopes that have various atomic masses between 145 165. We
don't know much about the toxicity of terbium but you should
handle it with care like you would with other rare-earth elements.
Terbium has few biological properties except that it's a biotoxin.
One of terbium's chemical properties is that when it's heated
it bursts into flame. Also the crystal form of terbium is shaped
like a hexagon. |
|click here
to get to top of page| |
|
| |
 .
|
| Atomic Symbol |
Tb |
| Atomic Number |
65 |
| Group |
Rare Earth, Lanthanides |
| Density |
8.27 g/cm3 |
| Atomic Weight |
158.9354 amu |
| Atomic Volume |
19.2 cm3/mol |
| Melting Point |
1633.3K |
| Boiling Point |
3073 K |
| # of Isotopes |
1 |
| Electron Configuration |
[Xe]6s4f |
|
A Bohr Model of Terbium
|
|
|
| Glossary |
- alloy: a mixture of two or more metals or of
metallic and nonmetallic elements usually fused together or dissolving
into each other when they're molten
- ductile: easily hammered thin or made into wire
- electron: an elementary partcle that has a negative
charge
- isotope: one out of two or more atoms with the
same atomic number but that have different mass numbers
- lanthanide: a rare eath-element
- malleable: able to be shaped or formed by a
hammer or some sort of pressure into a thin sheet of metal
- oxide: a binary compound of an element
- terbium: a silvery-gray earth metal element
- volume: the amount of space taken up by an object
with three dimensions or a region of space expressed in cubic
centimeters
|
| Bibliography |
|
| Back
to Top |
|
|
