Scandium Facts
Scandium Facts
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| Interesting Scandium Facts: |
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| Scandium was discovered in 1879 by Lars Fredrik Nilson, who named it after Scandinavia. |
| Its existence was originally predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev ten years before. |
| Despite the discovery, 99.9% pure scandium wasn't isolated until 1960. |
| Despite its silvery color, it tarnishes to a yellowish or pinkish color in air. |
| Scandium is the fiftieth most abundant element on Earth, but is the 23rd most abundant element in the Sun. |
| It is found in the Earth's crust at between eighteen and twenty-five parts per million. |
| Despite is prevalence in the crust, scandium is spread thinly throughout various minerals. |
| The only natural occurence of scandium is the isotope Sc-45. |
| It has thirteen radioisotopes. |
| Most of scandium's radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than two minutes. |
| Industrial uses for scandium are limited, as there are no reliable, safe large-scale methods of producing large quantities of scandium. |
| One of its chief purposes is to combine with aluminum into an alloy used for high-performance equipment, especially by the aerospace industry. |
| Scandium has other uses in a variety of compounds. |
| Only three mines currently extract scandium from ore. |
| Within those mines, scandium is actually a byproduct of the mining of other elements, with the end result being scandium oxide. |
| Only around 20 kg of scandium oxide is used each year in the US to make discharge lamps. |
| Another 80 kg of scandium is used each year to make halide lamps. |
| Scandium is not thought to be poisonous, but due to limited testing on live animals, it should be handled carefully in all of its compounds. |
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