Gadolinium Lab Report

INTRODUCTION

Gadolinium is a shiny silvery white, malleable, ductile, metallic, rare earth element which is located in group 3, f-block, period 6 and classified in the series of lanthanides in the elements of periodic table and has 27 isotopes whose half-lives are known with mass numbers from 137 to 164. This element is considered a rare earth element because there is such a small amount of it, and it is not found often in its simplest form. It was discovered in 1880 by Jean Charles de Marignac where it was extracted in from the mine located in Ytterby in Sweden, but it was isolated from metal oxide in 1886 by Lecoc de Boisbaudran who named it after the Finnish Chemist Johan Gadolin who discovered the first rare earth element in 1794. Gadolinium

Gadolinium does not occur free in its pure state in nature because this metal is too reactive to exist naturally so it reacts with other rare earth

It can also reacts with oxygen at high temperatures. Gadolinium has a hexagonal closely packed structure at ambient temperatures, but transforms at temperature of 1262 degree Celsius to a body centred cubic structure. This metal is paramagnetic at room temperature, but becomes ferromagnetic (strongly attracted by a magnet) when cooled below 20degrees Celsius and also shows the magnetoric effects ( meaning that when entering magnetic fields its temperature rises and its temperature decrease when exiting magnetic fields.

Gadolinium has a greatest ability to capture thermal neutrons of all elements; and stable in dry air, but tarnishes off in moist environments forming gadolinium (III) oxide. It has a melting point of 1585K (which is the same as 1312°C 2394°F), heat of fusion of 10,05 kJ/mol, and boiling point of 3546 K( 3273 °C, 5923 °F). Gadolinium has an electron configuration of [Xe]4f 75d16s2; and vapour pressure of7.39 Pa at temperatures of 2000 K.