Ytterbium isotope

Gammagraphic weld inspection in the lower range of steel thicknesses has been done with Iridium and Ytterbium isotope sources throughout the past. The large majority of applications has been using Iridium due to the unfavourable economical parameters of Ytterbium, obviously with non-optimal results at thin wall inspections. 

Fast-Beam Laser Spectroscopy on Radioactive Isotopes in the Rare-Earth Region, Oak Ridge, 1982, CERN-EP/82-80, 18 June 1982 F. Buchinger, A.C. Mueller, B. Schinzler, K. Wendt, C. Ekstrom, W. Klempt, R. Neugart, Fast-beam laser spectroscopy on metastable atoms applied to neutron-deficient ytterbium isotopes, Nucl. Instr. Meth. (1982, to be published). 

Ytterbium metal has possible use in improving the grain refinement, strength, and other mechanical properties of stainless steel. One isotope is reported to have been used as a radiation source substitute for a portable X-ray machine where electricity is unavailable. Few other uses have been found. 

ISOTOPES There are a total of 37 isotopes of ytterbium. Seven of these are stable, and they make up all of the natural ytterbium found on Earth. One of these isotopes (Yb-176) has such a long half-life (1.6xl0+ years) that it contributes 12.76% of the natural ytterbium existing on Earth, and thus it is considered stable. All the other 30 isotopes are artificially radioactive and produced by nuclear fission in nuclear reactors with half-lives ranging from a fraction of a second to 32 days. 

The metal has very little commercial use. In elemental form it is a laser source, a portable x-ray source, and as a dopant in garnets. When added to stainless steel, it improves grain refinement, strength, and other properties. Some other applications, particularly in oxides mixed with other rare earths, are as carbon rods for industrial hghting, in titanate insulated capacitors, and as additives to glass. The radioactive isotope ytterbium-169 is used in portable devices to examine defects in thin steel and aluminum. The metal and its compounds are used in fundamental research. 

Moseley s work not only shed much fight on the periodic system and the relationships between known elements and the radioactive isotopes, but was also a great stimulus in the search for the few elements remaining undiscovered (11). One of the first chemists to utilize the new method was Professor Georges Urbain of Paris, who took his rare earth preparations to Oxford for examination. Moseley showed him the characteristic fines of erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium, and confirmed in a few days the conclusions which Professor Urbain had made after twenty years... 

Would incomplete transfer processes open an alternative approach to the synthesis of superheavy nuclei Would, e.g., in the collision of two 238Ui46 nuclei one partner take up enough protons and neutrons to grow to the doubly magic 298114lg4, whereas the complementary partner would shrink to 17870io8> a known neutron-rich isotope of ytterbium ... 

Seven naturally occurring isotopes of ytterbium are known. These isotopes are ytterbium-168, ytterbium-170, ytterbium-171, ytterbium-172, ytterbium-173, ytterbium-174, and ytterbium-176. Isotopes are two or more forms of an element. Isotopes differ from each other according to their mass number. The number written to the right of the element s name is the mass number. The mass number represents the number of protons plus neutrons in the nucleus of an atom of the element. The number of protons determines the element, but the number of neutrons in the atom of any one element can vary. Each variation is an isotope. 

Twenty-nine radioactive isotopes of ytterbium are known also. A radioactive isotope is one that breaks apart and gives off some form of radiation. Radioactive isotopes are produced when very small particles are fired at atoms. These particles stick in the atoms and make them radioactive. 

Studies have been done on one radioactive isotope of ytterbium— ytterbium-169—for possible use in a portable X-ray machine. This isotope gives off gamma radiation, which is similar to X rays. Gamma rays... 

The nature of the thermal decomposition of thalium peroxides has been investigated. A similar study of thulium and ytterbium nitrate tetrahydrates produced no evidence for the formation of anhydrous nitrates. The new Tm isotope was found to have a half life of 3.6 0.3 min. 

At room temperature the element is a silvery metal. Its ground state electronic configuration is Xe 6 Ytterbium has many stable isotopes ... 

Ytterbium has 7 stable isotopes. There are 27 radioisotopes known. The most stable are Yb with a half-life of 32.026 days, Yb with a half-life of 4.185 days, and Yb with a half-life of 56.7 h. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have shorter half lives. 

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