Europium

Description

A silver gray metallic element from the rare-earth group. Europium was first identified by Sir William Crookes in 1889. It occurs naturally in the minerals monazite and bastnaesite and has an abundance in the earth's crust of 2 ppm. Metallic europium is soft, malleable and oxidizes readily in air. It forms both divalent and trivalent salts. Europium salts are used in cathode ray tube coatings for color television receivers, high intensity mercury vapor lamps, lasers, x-ray screens and neutron scintillators.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Eu

Risks

• Sensitive to air and moisture.
• Highly reactive but not thought to be toxic.
• Fisher Scientific: MSDS

Physical and Chemical Properties

Soluble in liquid ammonia, dilute acids and reacts with water at room temperature.

Composition	Eu (atomic no. 63)
CAS	7440-53-1
Melting Point	826 C
Density	5.244 g/ml
Molecular Weight	atomic wt=151.965
Boiling Point	1429 C

Resources and Citations

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The Merck Index, Martha Windholz (ed.), Merck Research Labs, Rahway NJ, 10th edition, 1983 Comment: entry 3951

• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: "europium." Accessed 7 Apr. 2005 .