Neodymium
Name: Neodymium
Symbol: Nd
Atomic Number: 60
Mass fraction of the earth’s shell: 22 ppm
Melting Point: 1016 °C
Boiling Point: 3074 °C
Electrical Conductivity: 1,56 · 106 A·V-1·m−1
Neodymium is one of the lanthanoides in the periodic table.
Name: Neodymium
Symbol: Nd
Atomic Number: 60
Mass fraction of the earth’s shell: 22 ppm
Melting Point: 1016 °C
Boiling Point: 3074 °C
Electrical Conductivity: 1,56 · 106 A·V-1·m−1
Neodymium is one of the lanthanoides in the periodic table.
HISTORY
Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach
A whole series of scientists were involved in the discovery of neodymium. Carl Gustav Mosander extracted the rare earth didymium from the lanthanum oxide of cerite in 1840. (Didym, Greek for “twin”, gets its name because of the strong similarity of didymium to lanthanum.) In 1874, Per Teodor Cleve established that didymium is two elements. In 1885, an Austrian student of Robert Bunsen, Carl Freiherr Auer von Welsbach, finally succeeded in separating didymium into praseodymium and neodymium. He achieved this using the fractional crystallisation method he had developed, which made it possible to separate substances by their different solubilities.
Pure neodymium in metal form was first isolated in 1925 by H. Kremers. Consequently, the production of pure, metallic neodymium on a commercial scale began in the Golden Twenties. Since 1927, neodymium has been used to colour glass.
CHARACTERISTICS & EXTRACTION
Neodymium is one of the light rare earths. Compared to other rare earth elements, the blue-violet oxide neodymium is more corrosion-resistant. Its outstanding property also defines its main application: it is strongly magnetic.
Neodymium is needed for wind turbines or highly effective electric motors, in microphones or speakers in smartphones.
Neodymium is found throughout the earth’s crust. It is concentrated (and thus economically mineable) in bastnäsite (which contains 12% neodymium content) and monazite (neodymium content 16 %). The largest deposits of neodymium are in China, Australia, the CIS states, and Brazil. The extraction of neodymium from the ores takes place mainly in China and Malaysia.
Bastnäsit / Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0