Terbium: the essentials
Terbium is reasonably stable in air. It is a silvery-grey metal, and is malleable, ductile, and soft enough to be cut with a knife. It is a rare earth metal found in cerite, gadolinite and monazite. The element itself was isolated only recently.
- Name: terbium
- Symbol: Tb
- Atomic number: 65
- Relative atomic mass (Ar): 158.92535 (2)
- Standard state: solid at 298 K
- Colour: silvery white
- Classification: Metallic
- Group in periodic table:
- Group name: Lanthanoid
- Period in periodic table: 6 (lanthanoid)
- Block in periodic table: f-block
- Electron shell structure: 2.8.18.27.8.2
- CAS Registry ID: 7440-27-9
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Terbium: historical information
Terbium was discovered by Gustav Mosander in 1843. He detected it is as an impurity in yttria which is yttrium oxide, Y2O3.
Terbium around us Read more »
Terbium has no biological role.
Lutetium is never found in nature as the free element. Lutetium is found in the ore monazite sand [(Ce, La, etc.)PO4], an ore containing small amounts of all the rare earth metals. Other minerals containing terbium include cerite, gadolinite, xenotime, and euxenite. It is difficult to separate from other rare earth elements.
Location | ppb by weight | ppb by atoms | Links |
---|---|---|---|
Universe | 0.5 | 0.004 | |
Crustal rocks | 940 | 120 | |
Human | (no data) ppb by weight | (no data) atoms relative to C = 1000000 |
Physical properties Read more »
Density of solid: 8219 kg m-3
Molar volume: 19.30 cm3
Thermal conductivity: 11 W m‑1 K‑1
Heat properties Read more »
Melting point: 1629 [1356 °C (2473 °F)] K
Boiling point: 3503 [3230 °C (5846 °F)] K
Enthalpy of fusion: 10.8 kJ mol-1
Crystal structure Read more »
The solid state structure of terbium is: hcp (hexagonal close-packed).
Terbium: orbital properties Read more »
Terbium atoms have 65 electrons and the shell structure is 2.8.18.27.8.2. The ground state electronic configuration of neutral Terbium is [Xe].4f9.6s2 and the term symbol of Terbium is 6H15/2.
Pauling electronegativity: (no data) (Pauling units)
First ionisation energy: 565.8 kJ mol‑1
Second ionisation energy: 1110 kJ mol‑1
Isolation
Isolation: terbium metal is available commercially so it is not normally necessary to make it in the laboratory, which is just as well as it is difficult to isolate as the pure metal. This is largely because of the way it is found in nature. The lanthanoids are found in nature in a number of minerals. The most important are xenotime, monazite, and bastnaesite. The first two are orthophosphate minerals LnPO4 (Ln deonotes a mixture of all the lanthanoids except promethium which is vanishingly rare) and the third is a fluoride carbonate LnCO3F. Lanthanoids with even atomic numbers are more common. The most comon lanthanoids in these minerals are, in order, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and praseodymium. Monazite also contains thorium and ytrrium which makes handling difficult since thorium and its decomposition products are radioactive.
For many purposes it is not particularly necessary to separate the metals, but if separation into individual metals is required, the process is complex. Initially, the metals are extracted as salts from the ores by extraction with sulphuric acid (H2SO4), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Modern purification techniques for these lanthanoid salt mixtures are ingenious and involve selective complexation techniques, solvent extractions, and ion exchange chromatography.
Pure terbium is available through the reduction of TbF3 with calcium metal.
2TbF3 + 3Ca → 2Tb + 3CaF2
This would work for the other calcium halides as well but the product CaF2 is easier to handle under the reaction conditions (heat to 50°C above the melting point of the element in an argon atmosphere). Excess calcium is removed from the reaction mixture under vacuum.
Terbium isotopes Read more »
Isotope | Mass /Da |
Natural abund. (atom %) |
Nuclear spin (I) |
Nuclear magnetic moment (μ/μN) |
---|---|---|---|---|
159Tb | 158.925342 (4) | 100 | 3/2 | 2.014 |
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