Hello everyone today I'm going to talk about such a rare earth metal as Lutetium
Lutetium is the last element in the lanthanide series of rare earth metals have become quite familiar with and
that is why it has some unique properties.
the elements belonging to this series are arranged in a specific order in accordance with which, the atomic radius of elements decreases from left to right.
Lutetium has got the smallest atomic radius, which is why it's got the highest density'
hardness and melting point among all the lanthanides
This property is called lanthanide contraction
anyway
Let's not talk about the boring stuff anymore and let us take a look at the metallic Lutetium
which when pure looks exactly like other lanthanides
such as erbium or terbium.By the way
this element was discovered by three different scientists from different countries
However, this element was named by a French chemist.
As was customary back then,
he named it after his home city - Paris. He named it after its Latin name which is Lutetia.
Chemical properties of Lutetium are very similar to those of other lanthanides metals
That is why it is very hard to separate it from Ytterbium for instance
That is a very reason why its market price is so high
Roughly ten dollars for one gram, which makes is just four times less expensive than Gold.
It's okay if you don't know chemical properties of rare earth metals because they are very similar with the only exception of Europium.
Lutetium dissolves well in acids forming Lutetium chloride.
In contrast to other coloured lanthanide compounds, lutetium compounds are colourless that is why this metal was discovered only in 1907.
Actually you might be surprised to learn that
Lutetium can be ground against a grinding wheel and it can form
bright sparkles from piece of this metal which burn up beautifully forming Lutetium oxide.
Speaking of this metal’s applications pure Lutetium is added to Chromium alloys to increase their density
Lutetium is also added to alloys of iron and aluminium
to produce strong magnets used in aerospace engineering
Lutetium oxide has a relatively narrow range of applications in nuclear technology.
Lutetium oxyorthosilicate is great for making detectors especially if its crystals contain cerium which triggers activation.
Such crystals are usually used in positron emission tomography
Numerous clusters of such crystals are used there
Such crystals start emitting faint light when irradiated with gamma rays
which are formed as a result of annihilation of electrons and positrons
inside the patient's body upon the decay of some isotopes for instance such as fluorine - 18
Faint flashes of light are boosted by the detectors
thus creating 3D images of the patient's body which can show any
irregularities such as cancerous tumors.
In nature Lutetium consists of two isotopes the first one is a stable isotope Lutetium - 175
which makes up the major part and the other isotope is radioactive Lutetium - 176
with an enormously long half-life.
It is noteworthy that when a precise dosimeter with an open cap is put next to bits of Lutetium,
radiation increases by four times which is quite unusual.
that happens because pure Lutetium
extracted from naturally occurring
minerals contains radioactive isotopes.
There is no need to worry , however,
the same thing is in the case with many metals for instance
fertilizers containing Potassium chloride emit radiation as well because naturally-occurring
Potassium contains an isotope Potassium - 40,
but such radiation dose doesn't exceed safe exposure limits unless you live in a fertilizer store facility.
However, there are artificially created isotopes too - one of them is Lutetium - 177
it is obtained when enriched lutetium - 176 is
irradiated in a neutron trap.
Such an isotope is also obtained in Russia for instance in IRT 2000 mm
nuclear reactors
The thing is an isotope of Lutetium can be bound with a molecule
which effectively destroys cancer cells and it's called DOTA
not to be confused with the video game along with rather like light say medicine can target cancer cells
Thankful, the peptide receptors destroys them with gamma radiation without damaging neighboring healthy cells
Such a treatment method has begun to be widely used for treating prostate cancer and other cancers
tumors to sum up we can say that Lutetium is a quite expensive and
unusual metal with a range of applications, which is
actively expanding
for the provided Lutetium for the experiments.I'll thank the company onyx mint.com
I'll put a link to their site in a video description.
would like to suppose the continuous production of science videos like this one.
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