Elements lanthanides

Little is known of the toxicity of terbium. It should be handled with care as with other lanthanide elements. 

Table 9. Ionic Radii of Actinide and Lanthanide Elements...

Thus it can be seen that elements in and near the island of stabiHty based on element 114 can be predicted to have chemical properties as foUows. Element 114 should be a homologue of lead, that is, should be eka-lead, and element 112 should be eka-mercury, element 110 should be eka-platinum, etc (26,27). If there is an island of stabiHty at element 126, this element and its neighbors should have chemical properties like those of the actinide and lanthanide elements (26). 

The radius of the 24-coordinate metal site in MBs is too large (215-225 pm) to be comfortably occupied by the later (smaller) lanthanide elements Ho, Er, Tm and Lu, and these form MB4 instead, where the metal site has a radius of 185-200 pm. The structure of MB4 (also formed by Ca, Y, Mo and W) consists of a tetragonal lattice formed by chains of Bs octahedra linked along the c-axis and joined laterally by pairs of B2 atoms in the xy plane so as to form a 3D skeleton with tunnels along the c-axis that are filled by metal atoms (Fig. 6.11). The pairs of boron atoms are thus surrounded by trigonal prisms of... 

Using tables of free energies of formation it is clear that most metals will react with most HX. Moreover, in many cases, e.g. with the alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, Zn, A1 and the lanthanide elements, such reactions are extremely exothermic. It is also clear that Ag should react with HCl, HBr and HI but not with HF, and... 

Scandium is very widely but thinly distributed and its only rich mineral is the rare thortveitite, Sc2Si20v (p. 348), found in Norway, but since scandium has only small-scale commercial use, and can be obtained as a byproduct in the extraction of other materials, this is not a critical problem. Yttrium and lanthanum are invariably associated with lanthanide elements, the former (Y) with the heavier or Yttrium group lanthanides in minerals such as xenotime, M "P04 and gadolinite, M M SijOio (M = Fe, Be), and the latter (La) with the lighter or cerium group lanthanides in minerals such as monazite, M P04 and bastnaesite, M C03F. This association of similar metals is a reflection of their ionic radii. While La is similar in size to the early lanthanides which immediately follow it in the periodic table, Y , because of the steady fall in ionic radius along the lanthanide series (p. 1234), is more akin to the later lanthanides. 

K. A. Gschneider Jr. and L. Eyring (eds.). Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, North-Holland, Amsterdam. fel. 1, (1978) to Vol. 21, (1995). An authoritative source of information on all topics associated with lanthanide elements. 

Table 30.1 The discovery of the oxides of Group 3 and the lanthanide elements ...

Figure 30.1 Flow diagram for the extraction of the lanthanide elements.

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