Gadolinium Element

Gadolinium has the highest thermal neutron capture cross-section of any known element (49,000 barns). 

Bivalence is similarly shown for europium, and trivalence for the elements gadolinium to thulium. 

Silvery, artificial element generated by beta decay from a plutonium isotope (239Pu). Chemically similar to gadolinium. Like Eu and Gd, Am and Cm are difficult to separate. It can be produced in kilogram amounts. The most common isotope is 244Cm with a half-life of 18.1 years. Is used for thermoelectric nuclide batteries in satellites and pacemakers. It is strongly radioactive and hence also suitable for material analysis. 

A salt of thulium can be made radioactive, and is used in medical X rays. Gadolinium is one of the few magnetic elements. 

These include the following 14 elements cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmi-um, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. 

KEYWORDS anthropogenic gadolinium, rare earth elements, tapwater, contrast agent, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis... 

Lanthanum chromite is the most common base for SOFC interconnects, but chromites of other lanthanide elements have also been used [43, 45, 46, 48, 54, 55], Although the conductivity of calcium-doped gadolinium chromite for low calcium contents is in the upper range of conductivities for lanthanum chromite, other nonlanthanum chromites typically have lower conductivities. However, the use of other lanthanides provides benefits in controlling the phase transformation temperature and in potential cost savings [48],... 

It should be noted that the ytterbium listed above was a mixture discovered in the mineral erbia by de Marignac in 1878 and not the neoytterbium/aldebaranium element renamed ytterbium that was foimd in the mineral ytterbia. The columbium was a mixture found in the mineral samarskite and was not the present day columbium/niobium. The ionium listed above was a mixture of terbium and gadolinium that was found in the mineral yttria and does not refer to °Th. Finally, the neptunium refers to material fovmd in niobium/tantalum minerals and does not refer to the 1940 discovery of the trans-uranium element produced via a neutron capture reaction on a uranium sample. 

Gadohnium is the 40th most abundant element on Earth and the sixth most abundant of the rare-earths found in the Earths crust (6.4 ppm). Like many other rare-earths, gadolinium is found in monazite river sand in India and Brazil and the beach sand of Florida as well as in bastnasite ores in southern California. Similar to other rare-earths, gadolinium is recovered from its minerals by the ion-exchange process. It is also produced by nuclear fission in atomic reactors designed to produce electricity. 

---