Colors lanthanide elements

In 1956 it was found that europium and ytterbium dissolve in liquid ammonia with the characteristic deep blue color known for the alkali and alkaline earth metals [36-40]. This behavior arises from the low density and high volatility of those metals compared to the other lanthanide elements [41]. Samarium, which normally also occurs in the divalent oxidation state, does not dissolve under... 

Interest in the development of metal-organic precursors for the lanthanide elements is due to the many important apphcations of lanthanide-containing materials. These include erbium-doped semiconductors for use as optical fiber communications, lanthanide-doped GaN for fiiU color displays, high-temperature superconductors, and lanthanide-doped ferroelectric see Ferroelectricity) phases. Despite the importance of these materials, lanthanide film growth precursors... 

The basis for the claim of discovery of an element has varied over the centuries. The method of discovery of the chemical elements in the late eightenth and the early nineteenth centuries used the properties of the new sustances, their separability, the colors of their compounds, the shapes of their crystals and their reactivity to determine the existence of new elements. In those early days, atomic weight values were not available, and there was no spectral analysis that would later be supplied by arc, spark, absorption, phosphorescent or x-ray spectra. Also in those days, there were many claims, e.g., the discovery of certain rare earth elements of the lanthanide series, which involved the discovery of a mineral ore, from which an element was later extracted. The honor of discovery has often been accorded not to the person who first isolated the element but to the person who discovered the original mineral itself, even when the ore was impure and that ore actually contained many elements. The reason for this is that in the case of these rare earth elements, the earth now refers to oxides of a metal not to the metal itself This fact was not realized at the time of their discovery, until the English chemist Humphry Davy showed that earths were compounds of oxygen and metals in 1808. 

In many inorganic pigments, lanthanides and transition elements are responsible for color. Metal oxides and oxide hydroxides are, however, also important as colored pigments because of their optical properties, low price, and ready availability. Colored pigments based on oxides and oxide hydroxides are either composed of a single component or mixed phases. In the latter, color is obtained by incorporation of appropriate cations. 

SAMARIUM. [CAS 7440-19-9]. Chemical element symbol Sm, at. no. 62, at. wt. 150.35, fifth in the Lanthanide Series in the periodic table, mp 1,073°C, bp l,79l°C, density 7.520 g/cm3 (20 C). Elemental samarium has a rhombohedral crystal structure at 25DC. The pure metallic samarium is silver-gray in color, retaining a luster in dry air, but only moderately stable in moist air, with formation of an adherent oxide. When pure, the metal is soft and malleable, but must be worked and fabricated under an inert gas atmosphere. Finely divided samarium as well as chips from working are... 

FIGURE 1.29 The seven /-orbitals of a shell (with n > 3) have a very complex appearance. Their detailed form will not be used again in this text. However, their existence is important for understanding the periodic table, the presence of the lanthanides and actinides, and the properties of the later d-block elements. A darker color denotes a positive lobe, a lighter color a negative lobe. 

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