Dysprosium is a chemical element with the symbol Dy and atomic number 66. It
is a rare earth element with a metallic silver luster. Dysprosium is never found
in nature as a free element, though it is found in various minerals, such as
xenotime. Naturally occurring dysprosium is composed of seven isotopes, the most
abundant of which is 164Dy. Dysprosium was first identified in 1886
by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, but was not isolated in pure form until the
development of ion exchange techniques in the 1950s. Dysprosium is used for its
high thermal neutron absorption cross-section in making control rods in
nuclear reactors, for its high magnetic susceptibility in data storage
applications, and as a component of Terfenol-D. Soluble dysprosium salts are
mildly toxic, while the insoluble salts are considered non-toxic.
Characteristics = Physical properties =
Dysprosium is a rare earth element that has a metallic, bright silver luster. It
is soft enough to be cut with a knife, and can be machined without sparking if
overheating is avoided. Dysprosium's physical characteristics can be greatly
affected, even by small amounts of impurities.
Dysprosium and holmium have the highest magnetic strengths of the elements,
especially at low temperatures. Dysprosium has a simple ferromagnetic
ordering at temperatures below 85 K. Above 85 K, it turns into an helical
antiferromagnetic state in which all of the atomic moments in a particular basal
plane layer are parallel, and oriented at a fixed angle to the moments of
adjacent layers. This unusual antiferromagnetism transforms into a
disordered state at 179 K. = Chemical properties =
Dysprosium metal tarnishes slowly in air and burns readily to form
dysprosium(III) oxide: 4 Dy + 3 O2 → 2 Dy2O3
Dysprosium is quite electropositive and reacts slowly with cold water to form
dysprosium hydroxide: 2 Dy + 6 H2O → 2 Dy(OH)3 + 3 H2
Dysprosium metal vigorously reacts with all the halogens at above 200 °C:
2 Dy + 3 F2 → 2 DyF3 [green] 2 Dy + 3 Cl2 → 2 DyCl3 [white]
2 Dy + 3 Br2 → 2 DyBr3 [white] 2 Dy + 3 I2 → 2 DyI3 [green]
Dysprosium dissolves readily in dilute sulfuric acid to form solutions
containing the yellow Dy(III) ions, which exist as a [Dy(OH2)9]3+ complex:
2 Dy + 3 H2SO4 → 2 Dy3+ + 3 SO2− 4 + 3 H2
The resulting compound, dysprosium(III) sulfate, is noticeably paramagnetic.
= Compounds = Dysprosium halides, such as DyF3 and
DyBr3, tend to take on a yellow color. Dysprosium oxide, also known as
dysprosia, is a white powder that is highly magnetic, more so than iron
oxide. Dysprosium combines with various
non-metals at high temperatures to form binary compounds with varying
composition and oxidation states +3 and sometimes +2, such as DyN, DyP, DyH2 and
DyH3; DyS, DyS2, Dy2S3 and Dy5S7; DyB2, DyB4, DyB6 and DyB12, as well as Dy3C
and Dy2C3. Dysprosium carbonate, Dy2(CO3)3, and
dysprosium sulfate, Dy2(SO4)3, result from similar reactions. Most dysprosium
compounds are soluble in water, though dysprosium carbonate tetrahydrate3·4H2O)
and dysprosium oxalate decahydrate3·10H2O) are both insoluble
in water. Two of the most abundant dysprosium carbonates,
tengerite-(Dy)3·2–3H2O) and kozoite-(Dy)) are known to form via a
poorly ordered precursor phase with a formula of Dy2(CO3)3·4H2O. This
amorphous precursor consists of highly hydrated spherical nanoparticles of
10–20 nm diameter that are exceptionally stable under dry treatment at ambient
and high temperatures. = Isotopes =
Naturally occurring dysprosium is composed of seven isotopes: 156Dy,
158Dy, 160Dy, 161Dy, 162Dy, 163Dy, and 164Dy. These are all considered stable,
although 156Dy decays by alpha decay with a half-life of over 1×1018 years.
Of the naturally occurring isotopes, 164Dy is the most abundant at 28%,
followed by 162Dy at 26%. The least abundant is 156Dy at 0.06%.
Twenty-nine radioisotopes have also been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from
138 to 173. The most stable of these is 154Dy, with a half-life of approximately
3×106 years, followed by 159Dym with a half-life of 144.4 days. The least
stable is 138Dy, with a half-life of 200 ms. As a general rule, isotopes that are
lighter than the stable isotopes tend to decay primarily by β+ decay, while those
that are heavier tend to decay by β− decay. However, 154Dy decays primarily
by alpha decay, and 152Dy and 159Dy decay primarily by electron capture.
Dysprosium also has at least 11 metastable isomers, ranging in atomic
mass from 140 to 165. The most stable of these is 165mDy, which has a half-life
of 1.257 minutes. 149Dy has two metastable isomers, the second of which,
149m2Dy, has a half-life of 28 ns. History
In 1878, erbium ores were found to contain the oxides of holmium and
thulium. French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, while working with
holmium oxide, separated dysprosium oxide from it in Paris in 1886. His
procedure for isolating the dysprosium involved dissolving dysprosium oxide in
acid, then adding ammonia to precipitate the hydroxide. He was only able to
isolate dysprosium from its oxide after more than 30 attempts at his procedure.
On succeeding, he named the element dysprosium from the Greek dysprositos,
meaning "hard to get". However, the element was not isolated in relatively
pure form until after the development of ion exchange techniques by Frank
Spedding at Iowa State University in the early 1950s.
In 1950, Glenn T. Seaborg, Albert Ghiorso, and Stanley G. Thompson
bombarded 241Am with helium ions, which produced atoms with an atomic number of
97 and which closely resembled the neighboring lanthanide terbium. Because
terbium was named after Ytterby, the city in which it and several other
elements were discovered, this new element was named berkelium for the city
in which it was synthesized. However, when the research team synthesized
element 98, they could not think of a good analogy for dysprosium, and instead
named the element californium in honor of the state in which it was
synthesized, California. The research team went on to "point out that, in
recognition of the fact that dysprosium is named on the basis of a Greek word
meaning 'difficult to get at,' that the searchers for another element a century
ago found it difficult to get to California".
Occurrence While Dysprosium is never encountered as
a free element, it is found in many minerals, including xenotime,
fergusonite, gadolinite, euxenite, polycrase, blomstrandine, monazite and
bastnäsite; often with erbium and holmium or other rare earth elements.
Currently, most dysprosium is being obtained from the ion-adsorption clay
ores of southern China, and future sources will include the Halls Creek
region in Western Australia. In the high-yttrium version of these,
dysprosium happens to be the most abundant of the heavy lanthanides,
comprising up to 7–8% of the concentrate. The concentration of Dy in
the Earth crust is about 5.2 mg/kg and in sea water 0.9 ng/L.
Production Dysprosium is obtained primarily from
monazite sand, a mixture of various phosphates. The metal is obtained as a
by-product in the commercial extraction of yttrium. In isolating dysprosium,
most of the unwanted metals can be removed magnetically or by a flotation
process. Dysprosium can then be separated from other rare earth metals
by an ion exchange displacement process. The resulting dysprosium ions can then
react with either fluorine or chlorine to form dysprosium fluoride, DyF3, or
dysprosium chloride, DyCl3. These compounds can be reduced using either
calcium or lithium metals in the following reactions:
3 Ca + 2 DyF3 → 2 Dy + 3 CaF2 3 Li + DyCl3 → Dy + 3 LiCl
The components are placed in a tantalum crucible and fired in a helium
atmosphere. As the reaction progresses, the resulting halide compounds and
molten dysprosium separate due to differences in density. When the mixture
cools, the dysprosium can be cut away from the impurities.
About 100 tonnes of dysprosium are produced worldwide each year, with 99%
of that total produced in China. Dysprosium prices have climbed nearly
twentyfold, from $7 per pound in 2003, to $130 a pound in late 2010. According
to the United States Department of Energy, the wide range of its current
and projected uses, together with the lack of any immediately suitable
replacement, makes dysprosium the single most critical element for emerging clean
energy technologies - even their most conservative projections predict a
shortfall of dysprosium before 2015. As of late 2015, there is a nascent rare
earth extraction industry in Australia. Applications
There are not many applications unique to dysprosium. Theodore Gray wrote in
his book The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the
Universe "Look up dysprosium, and you have to go to the fourth page of results
before finding anything that isn't a periodic table website's entry for
dysprosium, usually an obligatory 'It's an element, so we have to have a page
about it' sort of page." Dysprosium is used, in conjunction with
vanadium and other elements, in making laser materials and commercial lighting.
Because of dysprosium's high thermal-neutron absorption
cross-section, dysprosium-oxide–nickel cermets are used in neutron-absorbing
control rods in nuclear reactors. Dysprosium–cadmium chalcogenides are
sources of infrared radiation, which is useful for studying chemical reactions.
Because dysprosium and its compounds are highly susceptible to magnetization,
they are employed in various data-storage applications, such as in
hard disks. Neodymium–iron–boron magnets can have up
to 6% of the neodymium substituted by dysprosium to raise the coercivity for
demanding applications, such as drive motors for electric vehicles. This
substitution would require up to 100 grams of dysprosium per car produced.
Based on Toyota's projected 2 million units per year, the use of dysprosium in
applications such as this would quickly exhaust its available supply. The
dysprosium substitution may also be useful in other applications, because it
improves the corrosion resistance of the magnets.
Dysprosium is one of the components of Terfenol-D, along with iron and terbium.
Terfenol-D has the highest room-temperature magnetostriction of any
known material; which is employed in transducers, wide-band mechanical
resonators, and high-precision liquid-fuel injectors.
Dysprosium is used in dosimeters for measuring ionizing radiation. Crystals
of calcium sulfate or calcium fluoride are doped with dysprosium. When these
crystals are exposed to radiation, the dysprosium atoms become excited and
luminescent. The luminescence can be measured to determine the degree of
exposure to which the dosimeter has been subjected.
Nanofibers of dysprosium compounds have high strength and a large surface area.
Therefore, they can be used to reinforce other materials and act as a catalyst.
Fibers of dysprosium oxide fluoride can be produced by heating an aqueous
solution of DyBr3 and NaF to 450 °C at 450 bar for 17 hours. This material is
remarkably robust, surviving over 100 hours in various aqueous solutions at
temperatures exceeding 400 °C without redissolving or aggregating.
Dysprosium iodide and dysprosium bromide are used in high-intensity metal-halide
lamps. These compounds dissociate near the hot center of the lamp, releasing
isolated dysprosium atoms. The latter re-emit light in the green and red part
of the spectrum, thereby effectively producing bright light.
Several paramagnetic crystal salts of dysprosium are used in adiabatic
demagnetization refrigerators. Precautions
Like many powders, dysprosium powder may present an explosion hazard when mixed
with air and when an ignition source is present. Thin foils of the substance can
also be ignited by sparks or by static electricity. Dysprosium fires cannot be
put out by water. It can react with water to produce flammable hydrogen gas.
Dysprosium chloride fires, however, can be extinguished with water, while
dysprosium fluoride and dysprosium oxide are non-flammable. Dysprosium nitrate,
Dy(NO3)3, is a strong oxidizing agent and will readily ignite on contact with
organic substances. Soluble dysprosium salts, such as
dysprosium chloride and dysprosium nitrate, are mildly toxic when ingested.
The insoluble salts, however, are non-toxic. Based on the toxicity of
dysprosium chloride to mice, it is estimated that the ingestion of 500
grams or more could be fatal to a human. See also
Lanthanide References
External links WebElements.com – Dysprosium
It's Elemental – Dysprosium