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What
the name means:
Ytterbium was named after a village called Ytterby, near Stockholm, Sweden. It was
from a quarry near Ytterby village that a
black mineral, which was named ytterite (gadolinite),
that contained ytterbium oxide, was found.
Who
identified
ytterbium?
Ytterbium was identified
by the French scientist, Jean Charles Galissard de
Marignac in 1878.
About
ytterbium:
Ytterbium
is one of the members of the group of
elements know as the rare earths. There are
sixteen elements in this group. The word
“earth” was used to describe the oxide of
metals. The word “rare” was applied to
these sixteen elements because it was
believed that their metal oxides were not
present in any great quantity in the
Earth’s crust. In fact, for most of the
elements in this group, this is not the
case. Their metal oxides are quite
abundant, although they often occur mixed
with other compounds. |
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