Lutetium oxide

Lutetium oxide (Lu O ), the oxide found in monazite ore, is a white solid. It is hygroscopic and also absorbs carbon dioxide, making it useful to remove CO in closed atmospheres. 

As shown in Table I, lanthanum and lutetium oxides have Sq ground states and consequently their heat capacities should be attributed to lattice vibration. Data on these substances may be used to represent the lattice contribution to a first approximation for neighboring isostructural (and nearly so) sesquioxides. Cubic gadolinium oxide provides a midseries lattice heat capacity approximation at relatively high temperatures... 

None of these early scientists actually saw pure lutetium. The substance they thought was an element was actually a compound, usually lutetium oxide. The pure metal was isolated only quite recendy. 

Lutetium is one of the most expensive lanthanoids. In 2007, lutetium oxide sold for about 3,500 per kilogram. It is sometimes used as a catalyst in the petroleum industry. A catalyst is a substance used to speed up a chemical reaction. The catalyst does not undergo any change itself during the reaction. There are virtually no other uses for lutetium. 

La2Te3 LANTHANUM TELLURIDE 942 Lu203 LUTETIUM OXIDE 992... 

Indium(I) bromide Brin 285 24.3 Lutetium oxide LUjO, 2490 133... 

XRD analysis of Lu20j Eu powders calcinated at different temperatures for 2 hours are presented in Fig. 3. According to the XRD data, the precursor and products of its calcination at T<550 °C were amorphous. The formation of cubic lutetium oxide starts at T=550 °C. Temperature increase from 550 to 1000 °C leads to decrease of half-width of diffraction peaks and to increase of their intensity. This testifies an improvement of Lu203 Eu crystallinity. The average crystallite size estimated by Scherrer s equation also increases from 10.5 to 30.5 A (fig. 4). All the diffraction peaks on the XRD patterns were attributed to cubic Lu20j Eu. ... 

Lutetium is also a very rare metal, with a world production (as lutetium oxide) of approximately 10 tons per year. One commercial application is known it is used as a P-emitter, (when Lu-176 has been exposed to neutron activation) in the oil refining industry (Emsley 2001). It was used in so-called-bubble memory, a technology for computer memory that has become obsolete, since hard disks have made their rapid substantial advance. It is still used in scintillation crystals for PET-scanners (positron emission scanners). It is used here in the form of cerium-doped Lutetium oxy-orthosilicate (LSO), with the formula Ce2x Lu2(l — x) SiOs, where x is within tire range from approximately 2 x 10 to approximately 3 X 10 (Melcher 1990 Daghighian et al. 1993). 

An LQ, Ito A, Goto T (2011) Two-step pressure sintering of transparent lutetium oxide by spark plasma sintering. J Eur Ceram Soc 31 1597-1602... 

Indium arsenide Asin 942 77.0 Lutetium oxide LUjOj 2490 133... 

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