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General
States Energies Oxidation & Electrons Appearance & Characteristics Reactions Compounds Radius Conductivity Abundance & Isotopes |
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General:
| Name: Dysprosium | Symbol: Dy |
| Type: Rare Earth, Lanthanide series | Atomic weight: 162.50 |
| Density @ 293 K: 8.536 g/cm3 | Atomic volume: 19.0 cm3/mol |
| Discovered: Dysprosium was discovered in 1886 by French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran by separating its oxide from holmium oxide. It took de Boisbaudran over 30 attempts to achieve the desired separation. Fittingly he named the element dysprosium, from the Greek 'dysprositos' meaning 'hard to obtain'. Continuing to live up to its name, pure metallic dysprosium was not isolated for about another eighty years: ion-exchange chromatography finally succeeded in the 1950s. | |
States
| State (s, l, g): solid | |
| Melting point: 1683 K (1410 oC) | Boiling point: 2833 K (2560 oC) |
Energies
| Specific heat capacity: 0.17 J g-1 K-1 | Heat of atomization: 291 kJ mol-1 |
| Heat of fusion: 11.060 kJ mol-1 | Heat of vaporization : 230.0 kJ mol-1 |
| 1st ionization energy: 571.9 kJ mol-1 | 2nd ionization energy: 1126 kJ mol-1 |
| 3rd ionization energy: 2200 kJ mol-1 | Electron affinity: kJ mol-1 |
Oxidation & Electrons
| Shells: 2,8,18,28,8,2 | Electron configuration: [Xe] 4f10 6s2 |
| Minimum oxidation number: 0 | Maximum oxidation number: 3 |
| Min. common oxidation no.: 0 | Max. common oxidation no.: 3 |
| Electronegativity (Pauling Scale): 1.22 | Polarizability volume: 24.5 Å3 |
Appearance & Characteristics
| Structure: hexagonal close packed | Color: silvery-white |
| Harmful effects: Dysprosium is considered to be moderately toxic. | Hardness: mohs |
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Characteristics:
Dysprosium is a bright, silvery-white, rare earth metal. It tarnishes slowly in air at room temperature and dissolves in both dilute and concentrated acids. Dysprosium and holmium have the highest magnetic strengths of any elements. Dysprosium also has a high thermal neutron absorption cross-section. which makes it an excellent neutron absorber. |
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Uses:
Dysprosium is used in neutron-absorbing control rods in nuclear reactors. Terfenol-D (a terbium, iron and dysprosium alloy) expands or contracts in the presence of a magnetic field (magnetostriction) and is used in ships' sonar systems and in sensors and transducers. Terfenol-D is also used in a speaker called the 'SoundBug', which turns any flat surface into a speaker. Dysprosium is used in data storage applications such as compact discs and hard discs. It is also used in medium source rare-earth lamps (MSRs) in the film industry. With vanadium, dysprosium is used in laser materials. |
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Reactions
| Reaction with air: mild, ⇒ Dy2O3 | Reaction with 6 M HCl: mild, ⇒ H2, DyCl3 |
| Reaction with 15 M HNO3: mild, ⇒ Dy(NO3)3 | Reaction with 6 M NaOH: |
Compounds
| Oxide(s): Dy2O3 (dysprosia) | Chloride(s): DyCl2, DyCl3 |
| Hydride(s): DyH2, DyH3 |
Radius
| Atomic radius: 175 pm | Ionic radius (1+ ion): pm |
| Ionic radius (2+ ion): 121 pm | Ionic radius (3+ ion): 105.2 pm |
| Ionic radius (2- ion): pm | Ionic radius (1- ion): pm |
Conductivity
| Thermal conductivity: 10.7 W m-1 K-1 | Electrical conductivity: 1.1 x 106 S m-1 |
Abundance & Isotopes
| Abundance earth's crust: 6 parts per million by weight, 790 parts per billion by moles | |
| Abundance solar system: 2 parts per billion by weight, 10 parts per trillion by moles | |
| Cost, pure: $450 per 100g | |
| Cost, bulk: $30 per 100g | |
| Source: Dysprosium is not found free in nature but is found in a number of minerals: mainly monazite and bastnasite. Commercially, dysprosium is extracted by reduction of its trifluoride with calcium metal. | |
| Isotopes: Dysprosium has 29 isotopes whose half-lives are known, with mass numbers 141 to 169. Of these, seven are stable, 156Dy, 158Dy, 160Dy, 161Dy, 162Dy, 163Dy and 164Dy. The most abundant isotope is 164Dy at 28.2%. | |
