Yttrium metal

Yttrium metal of 99.9% purity is commercially available at a cost of about 75/oz. 

In 1794 the Finnish chemist J. Gadolin, while examining a mineral that had recently been discovered in a quarry at Ytterby, near Stockholm, isolated what he thought was a new oxide (or earth ) which A. G. Ekeberg in 1797 named yttria. In fact it was a mixture of a number of metal oxides from which yttrium oxide was separated by C. G. Mosander in 1843. This is actually part of the fascinating story of the rare earths to which we shall return in Chapter 30. The first sample of yttrium metal, albeit very impure, was obtained by F. Wohler in 1828 by the reduction of the trichloride by potassium. 

E. Morrice, J. E. Murphy and M. M. Wong, Preparation of Rare Earth and Yttrium Metals by... 

In early 1828, Friedrich Wohler (1800—1882) obtained yttrium metal by reducing yttrium chloride with potassium (YCl + K —> 2KC1 + Y). He is also given credit for yttriums discovery. 

Tan C-S, Chang C-F, Hsu T-J (2002) Copolymerization of carbon dioxide, propylene oxide and cyclohexene oxide by a yttrium-metal coordination catalyst system. In CO2 conversion and utilization. ACS Symp Ser 809 102-111... 

Hsu T, Tan C (2002) Block copolymerization of carbon dioxide with cyclohexene oxide and 4-vinyl-1-cyclohexene-1,2-epoxide in based poly(propylene carbonate) by yttrium-metal... 

Yttrium oxalate is then ignited to its oxide, Y2O3. The oxide is heated at 750°C in a stream of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride to yield yttrium fluoride, YF3. Alternatively, the oxide is mixed with ammonium hydrogen fluoride NH4HF2 and heated at 400°C in a stream of dry air or helium. Yttrium metal may be produced from its fluoride either by metallothermic reduction or electrolysis. The more common metallothermic reduction involves reducing the fluoride with redistilled calcium in 10% excess over the stoichiometric amounts at elevated temperatures ... 

Similarly, yttrium metal shavings were shown to react with phenol at its boiling point in the presence of HgCl2 to form the phenoxide.17 However, the amount of HgCl2 catalyst added must be small if secondary reactions leading to impurities are to be avoided. 

Solid yttrium metal does not react with oxygen in the air. However, it reacts very rapidly when in its powdered form. Yttrium powder may react explosively with oxygen at high temperatures. 

Solution and Solid State NMR Studies of Alginic Acid Binding with Alkaline Earth, Lanthanide, and Yttrium Metal Ions... 

By examining the effect of alkaline earth, lanthanide and yttrium metal ions on alginates, we can begin to understand how these metals interact with simple components of soil matter. After laying the groundwork with these studies, we can then predict possible mechanisms for ion transport in soils. 

Initially, there was a natural skepticism that the formation of these oxo-al-koxides could have resulted from some stray hydrolytic side reaction(s). For example, while reporting such a species, Y50(0-/-Pr)13, for the first time in 1989 with the reaction of yttrium metal and isopropanol (478), the Poncelet et al. (478) reported that these isolated oxo-isopropoxide crystals did not form... 

Bulk yttrium metal is passivated by an oxide layer and is quite stable in air metal turnings ignite if heated >670 K (equation 22.7). Yttrium reacts with halogens (equation... 

With regard to the fibrinogenic activity of yttrium compounds, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH 2003) currently recommends a threshold limit value (TLV) of 1 mg m for yttrium metal and its compounds when measured as yttrium. 

Lugkey T and Venugopal B (1978) Yttrium metal toxicity in mammals. Physiological and chemical basis of metal toxicity. Plenum Press, New York. 

From these data, a reaction of, for example, yttrium metal with Ar appeared feasible however, this reaction was attempted and was not successful (King et al., 1996). 

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