Ytterbium
For those who are not chemically inclined ytterbium is a chemical element referred to by the symbol Yb in chemistry. It's discovery is credited to Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1878 who was a Swiss chemist after he took apart a well known chemical erbia and upon doing so discovered Ytterbium and proposed that on its own it was quite useful.
Ytterbium is a really pretty chemical laced in shiny silver and is very malleable. One of the rarest elements it easily oxidizes within air but is equally destroyed by any acid chemical it comes into contact with. Its atomic number is assigned as 70 (each element on the periodic table is assigned an elemental number to scale.)
Allotropes which are the properties of which a chemical is made up of are a key component when studying elements and ytterbium is comprised of three of them; they are recognized by their Greek alphabet letters, alpha, beta and gamma. Ytterbium forms in temperatures of minus 13 degrees Celsius and 795 degrees Celsius. Of all the chemicals that can be liquefied, ytterbium has the smallest range being 824 degrees Celsius and boiling when reaching 1196 degrees Celsius.
On the whole ytterbium reacts with cold waters and temperatures very slowly but will transpose and react to warm temperatures and climates quicker than most elements utilized in the scientific community.
The ytterbium metal will react or counter react to such metals as fluorine, chlorine, iodine and bromine rather efficiently. It also will dissolve in acids at a rapid rate which is why it is used primarily in metals such as steel.
Ytterbium is not found everywhere and the highest density of it is found in areas such as China, Brazil and the United States usually among other natural elements that are also rare. When first discovered ytterbium was found to be near impossible to separate from minerals and elements such as monazite, but over the course of its investigation methods to simply the process were created and devised and include solvent extraction and ion exchange, both of which made the process much simpler.
The ionic adsorption clays found in India only are the most lucrative source of ytterbium because they are the most concentrated and are usually found with other rare elements like thulium and lutetium both of which have equal value.
As beautiful and respected as ytterbium is, commercially is doesn't have a lot of uses and therefore only about 50 tons of it are produced or mined every year. This could also be because ytterbium is difficult to produce and undergoes three stages before it is transitioned into a useable state. These processes include processing first followed by separating the Yb from its other elements and finally preparing the metal so that it can be utilized.
To treat ytterbium specific acids and chemicals are used to separate and oxidize it such as potassium bisulfate or hydrofluoric acid both of which are strong enough to extract the element from its base elements.
In spite of the production of ytterbium being small it does have uses that common folk are probably not privy to. The gamma portion of ytterbium is commonly used in the construction of x-ray radiation because gamma rays easily pass through the body. The gamma rays act like little cameras within the body and shoot out photos to doctors to help them treat and diagnose such ailments as bone cancer.
Dopants, which are a chemical element, are used in an array of things to alter chemical properties. Therefore the dopants within ytterbium are often used when manipulating stainless steel and since the element itself is malleable it can easily be altered and manipulated for these purposes. Ytterbium can help the stability of the steel's mechanics.
Occasionally ytterbium is also utilized in optical materials in laser media again because it is so malleable. It is a key component in many glasses and ceramics. It is also commonly used in solid state lasers in laboratories.
Because it has fiber operative agents it is also used in the production of fiber optic cables to a lesser degree.
Some scientists have recently discovered that ytterbium can increase metabolisms but because it poses health and environmental dangers there has not yet been a discovery as to how to use it for such purposes. Ytterbium is extremely irritating to the eyes and skin and also is an environmental safety risk as its components and dust are flammable and can explode without notice. Among plant and wild life however the chemical ytterbium has not been found to be dangerous. It does not play a role in biology and in general is classified as a non-toxic agent by the scientific community.
While its uses are few to date ytterbium is still a much coveted and studied element on periodic tables and it is expected that with further research scientists will be able to figure out future and further uses for this dissolving and stable element.