Scandium elements

We may note (a) the common occurrence of oxidation state +2 where the 4s electrons have been formally lost, (b) the increase in the number of oxidation states from scandium to manganese in the latter element, the oxidation state + 7 corresponds to the formal loss of the and 3d electrons, (c) the sharp decrease in the number of oxidation states after manganese—suggesting that removal of the paired id electrons is less easy (d) the oxidation state 0, occurring for many of the later elements in the series. ... 

Scandium is not an uncommon element, but is difficult to extract. The only oxidation state in its compounds is -I- 3, where it has formally lost the 3d 4s electrons, and it shows virtually no transition characteristics. In fact, its chemistry is very similar to that of aluminium (for example hydrous oxide SC2O3, amphoteric forms a complex [ScFg] chloride SCCI3 hydrolysed by water). 

The element was discovered by Nilson in 1878 in the minerals euxenite and gadolinite, which had not yet been found anywhere except in Scandinavia. By processing 10 kg of euxenite and other residues of rare-earth minerals, Nilson was able to prepare about 2g of highly pure scandium oxide. Later scientists pointed out that Nilson s scandium was idenhcal with Mendeleev s ekaboron. 

Scandium is a silver-white metal which develops a slightly yellowish or pinkish cast upon exposure to air. A relatively soft element, scandium resembles yttrium and the rare-earth metals more than it resembles aluminum or titanium. 

Gallium [7440-55-3] atomic number 31, was discovered through a study of its spectral properties in 1875 by P. E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran and named from Gallia in honor of its discoverer s homeland. The first element to be discovered after the pubHcation of Mendeleev s Periodic Table, its discovery constituted a confirmation of the Table which was reinforced shordy after by the discoveries of scandium and germanium. 

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). 

Some nut trees accumulate mineral elements. Hickory nut is notable as an accumulator of aluminum compounds (30) the ash of its leaves contains up to 37.5% of AI2O2, compared with only 0.032% of aluminum oxide in the ash of the Fnglish walnut s autumn leaves. As an accumulator of rare-earth elements, hickory greatly exceeds all other plants their leaves show up to 2296 ppm of rare earths (scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium). The amounts of rare-earth elements found in parts of the hickory nut are kernels, at 5 ppm shells, at 7 ppm and shucks, at 17 ppm. The kernel of the Bra2d nut contains large amounts of barium in an insoluble form when the nut is eaten, barium dissolves in the hydrochloric acid of the stomach. 

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. 

Compared to later elements in their respective transition series, scandium, yttrium and lanthanum have rather poorly developed coordination chemistries and form weaker coordinate bonds, lanthanum generally being even less inclined to form strong coordinate bonds than scandium. This is reflected in the stability constants of a number of relevant 1 1 metal-edta complexes ... 

To avoid this confusion, and because many of the elements are actually far from rare, the terms lanthanide , lanthanon and lanthanoid have been introduced. Even now, however, there is no general agreement about the position of La, i.e, whether the group is made up of the elements La to Lu or Ce to Lu. Throughout this chapter the term lanthanide and the general symbol, Ln, will be used to refer to the fourteen elements cerium to lutetium inclusive, the Group 3 elements, scandium, yttrium and lanthanum having already been dealt with in Chapter 20. 

The person whose name is most closely associated with the periodic table is Dmitri Mendeleev (1836-1907), a Russian chemist. In writing a textbook of general chemistry, Mendeleev devoted separate chapters to families of elements with similar properties, including the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals, and the halogens. Reflecting on the properties of these and other elements, he proposed in 1869 a primitive version of today s periodic table. Mendeleev shrewdly left empty spaces in his table for new elements yet to be discovered. Indeed, he predicted detailed properties for three such elements (scandium, gallium, and germanium). By 1886 all of these elements had been discovered and found to have properties very similar to those he had predicted. 

When we add the next electron to form the element scandium, the orbital of lowest energy that is available is one of the 3d orbitals (since the 3d orbitals are slightly lower in energy than the 4p orbitals). As succeeding electrons are added to form other elements, they enter the 3d orbitals until the ten available spaces in these orbitals are filled. 

There is some disagreement among chemists as to just which elements should be called transition elements. For our purposes, it will be convenient to include all the elements in the columns of the periodic table headed by scandium through zinc. 

There are five 3d orbitals available, all more or less of the same energy. Putting a pair of electrons in each of these five orbitals means that a total of ten electrons can be accommodated before we need to go to a higher energy level. Not only scandium but the nine following elements can be built up by adding electrons into 3d orbitals. Not until we get to gallium (element number 31) do we go up to another set of orbitals. 

The maximum oxidation state observed for the elements first increases and then decreases as we go across the transition row. Thus we have 4-3 for scandium, 4-4 for titanium, 4-5 for vanadium, 4-6 for chromium, and 4-7 for manganese. The 4-7 represents the highest value observed for this transition row. After manganese, the maximum value diminishes as we continue toward the end of the transition row. 

Scandium has not yet been available in large enough amounts to have it develop interesting or important uses. Neither has it been available for much experimental work, so there remains much to be learned about this element. 

And Maher goes on explicitly to underline the conclusions about confirmatory weight that he sees as illustrated by this episode. He claims that Mendeleev s prediction of the existence of the third of the new elements, eka-silicon (aka germanium), was initially regarded as quite unlikely to be true but then later, with the discovery of the first two new elements (gallium and scandium), confidence in the prediction of the existence of the third new element became so high that its eventual empirical confirmation was widely regarded as a matter of course. Maher writes ... 

Lipton talks of the predictive successes with gallium and scandium as giving greater credence to Mendeleev s theory (a troublesome notion as already noted and as we shall see later in more detail) and only thence to the further prediction of germanium from that general theory. But Maher talks more directly of the impact of the successes with the first two new elements on the confidence that chemists... 

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