Atomic yttrium

For organometailic compounds, the situation becomes even more complicated because the presence of elements such as platinum, iron, and copper introduces more complex isotopic patterns. In a very general sense, for inorganic chemistry, as atomic number increases, the number of isotopes occurring naturally for any one element can increase considerably. An element of small atomic number, lithium, has only two natural isotopes, but tin has ten, xenon has nine, and mercury has seven isotopes. This general phenomenon should be approached with caution because, for example, yttrium of atomic mass 89 is monoisotopic, and iridium has just two natural isotopes at masses 191 and 193. Nevertheless, the occurrence and variation in patterns of multi-isotopic elements often make their mass spectrometric identification easy, as depicted for the cases of dimethylmercury and dimethylplatinum in Figure 47.4. 

Lanthanides is the name given collectively to the fifteen elements, also called the elements, ranging from lanthanum. La, atomic number 57, to lutetium, Lu, atomic number 71. The rare earths comprise lanthanides, yttrium, Y, atomic number 39, and scandium. Sc, atomic number 21. The most abundant member of the rare earths is cerium, Ce, atomic number 58 (see Ceriumand cerium compounds). 

Therefore the extent of extraction or back-extraction is governed by the concentration of X ia the aqueous phase, the distribution coefficients, and selectivities depending on the anion. In nitrate solutions, the distribution coefficient decreases as the atomic number of the REE increases, whereas ia thiocyanate solutions, the distribution coefficient roughly increases as the atomic number of the REE increases. The position of yttrium in the lanthanide series is not the same in nitrate and thiocyanate solutions, and this phenomenon has been used for high purity yttrium manufacture in the past. A combination of extraction by carboxyUc acids then by ammonium salts is also utilized for production of high purity yttrium. 

The term solid-state laser refers to lasers that use solids as their active medium. However, two kinds of materials are required a host crystal and an impurity dopant. The dopant is selected for its ability to form a population inversion. The Nd YAG laser, for example, uses a small number of neodymium ions as a dopant in the solid YAG (yttrium-aluminum-gar-net) crystal. Solid-state lasers are pumped with an outside source such as a flash lamp, arc lamp, or another laser. This energy is then absorbed by the dopant, raising the atoms to an excited state. Solid-state lasers are sought after because the active medium is relatively easy to handle and store. Also, because the wavelength they produce is within the transmission range of glass, they can be used with fiber optics. 

Goldschmidt has classed also with the ionic crystals the C-modification of the sesqui-oxides, cubic crystals with 16 M2O3 in the unit of structure. The inter-atomic distances reported by him are 2.16-2.20 A. for scandium oxide and 2.34-2.38 A. for yttrium oxide, in good agreement with the radius sums 2.21 A. for Sc+3-0= and 2.33 A. for Y+3-0". 

The key to the superconducting properties of these ceramics seems to be the presence of planes of copper and oxygen atoms bonded to one another. The significance of the other atoms in the lattice seems to be to provide a stmctural framework for the copper and oxygen atoms. Thus, in the superconducting compound YBa2Cu30, the substitution of other rare earths for yttrium resrrlts in little change in the properties of the material. 

Fig. 9. Time-of-flight spectra for non-reactively scattered yttrium atoms at indicated lab angles for the Y + CH3OH reaction at Eco = 28.1 kcal/mol. Fits data generated using the CM distributions shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10. (a) Lab angular distribution for non-reactively scattered yttrium atoms from... 

The strangest section of the periodic chart comes in the first transition subgroup. Under scandium and yttrium (marked with stars on the periodic chart) fall two long horizontal lists of elements so much alike that they are squeezed into two squares of the chart. Elements with the atomic numbers 57-71 are called the lanthanides. The actinides are elements with the atomic numbers 89-103, and they are all radioactive. These transition elements are as follows ... 

Because boron (B) atoms occur in formulas of this section, we employ the symbol Y (not yttrium ) for a generic Lewis base and X for a generic Lewis acid. 

The 3rd group of the Periodic Table (the 1st column within the block of the transition elements) contains the metals scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, and actinium. Lanthanum (atomic number 57) may be considered the earliest member of the family of metals, called lanthanides (general symbol Ln), forming, inside the principal transition series, an inner transition series (up to atomic number 71). Scandium and yttrium together with the lanthanides are also called rare earth metals (general symbol R). 

Within the lanthanides the first ones from La to Eu are the so-called light lanthanides, the other are the heavy ones. Together with the heavy lanthanides it may be useful to consider also yttrium the atomic dimensions of this element and some general characteristics of its alloying behaviour are indeed very similar to those of typical heavy lanthanides, such as Dy or Ho. An important subdivision within the lanthanides, or more generally within the rare earth metals, is that between the divalent ones (europium and ytterbium which have been described together with other divalent metals in 5.4) and the trivalent ones (all the others, scandium and yttrium included). 

---