Discovery date : 1878
Discovered by: Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac
Origin of the name: Ytterbium is named after Ytterby, Sweden.
Allotropes :
~>YTTERBIUM is a chemical element with symbol Yb and atomic number 70. It is the fourteenth and penultimate element in the lanthanide series, which is the basis of the relative stability of its +2 oxidation state.
| FACT BOX | |||
| Group | Lanthanides | Melting point | 824°C, 1515°F, 1097 K |
| Period | 6 | Boiling point | 1196°C, 2185°F, 1469 K |
| Block | f | Density (g cm−3) | 6.90 |
| Atomic number | 70 | Relative atomic mass | 173.045 |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 172Yb,173Yb,174Yb |
| Electron configuration | [Xe] 4f146s2 | CAS number | 7440-64-4 |
| ChemSpider ID | 22428 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Ytterbium was isolated in 1878 by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac at the University of Geneva. The story began with yttrium, discovered in 1794, which was contaminated with other rare-earth elements (aka lanthanoids). In 1843, erbium and terbium were extracted from it, and then in 1878, de Marignac separated ytterbium from erbium. He heated erbium nitrate until it decomposed and then extracted the residue with water and obtained two oxides: a red one which was erbium oxide, and a white one which he knew must be a new element, and this he named ytterbium. Even this was eventually shown to contain another rare earth, lutetium, in 1907.
A tiny amount of ytterbium metal was made in 1937 by heating ytterbium chloride and potassium together but was impure. Only in 1953 was a pure sample obtained.