Scandium

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(Photo credit: Periodictable.com)
Atomic Number: 21
Relative Atomic Mass: 44.9
Group: 3
Period: 4
Block: D

Symbol: Sc

Scandium (Pictured Left) is a silver metal which can oxidise in air. This metal also burns easy and reacts with water.

Scandium is very widely distributed. It is (currently as writiing) $270 per gram (£207). It occurs in tiny quanities in around 800 minerals. Scandium is the main component of the very rare thortvetite which is found in scandinavia. This is where the name of scandium is from. Scandium is latin name from scandinavia.

Thortvetite - the mineral which Scandium can be isolated from.
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Scandium can be recovered from thortvetite (seen above). Or the element can be extracted from the sandy waste of uranium milling, known as uranium mill trailings. They can be radioactive, though it depends on the level of radiation from the uranium.

Discovery of Scandium
Lars Fredrik Nelson

Scandium was discovered in the year 1879 by the swedish chemist, Lars Fredrik Nilson (Seen in the photo: left). Lars extracted the element from the complex mineral known as euxenite. Euxenite contain an astonishing 8 different metal oxides which the chemist had already 2 of them. Lars extracted first, erbium oxide (Er₂O₃), then ytterbium oxide (Yb₂O₃) and afterwards Lars found a lighter metal oxide. The atomic spectum concluded that the element was unknown to the world.

This metal oxide was Scandium Oxide, Sc₂O₃.

 But what is impressive is that Dmitri Mendeleev (Link to my Previous Blog Post) had already predicted this. In the year 1869, ten years before, Mendeleev noticed that they was a gap between Calcium (atomic mass: 40) and titanium (atomic mass: 48). So he predicted that they would be an element which slotted inbetween Calcium and Titanium. Plus, Mendeleev also predicted that the oxide of the metal (X) would be X₂O₃.

 Scandium would be completely isolated be electrolysis in 1937. 

Biological Use

 There are no biological uses for Scandium. Instead, it is actually a suspected carcinogen - which means it could cause cancer.

It's Uses
  • Mostly, the element is used for research purposes.
  • An Aluminium-Scandium alloy has been used for Russian fighter planes, bicycle frames and baseball bats
    • Due to the low density and high melting point of Scandium (It melts at 1541ºC!). 
  • Scandium iodide can be added to mercury vapour lamps to produce light which can resemble sunlight
    • These lights help cameras to reproduce colour well even though they are inside or it's dark.
  • The radioactive scandium isotope - 46 (relating to the atomic weight) is used to lace oil as a tracer. Scandium is then used to either locate a leak in a pipe or to monitor the movement of a certain oil fraction. 

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