Element 73 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is tantalum. Tantalum is used in electrical components in phones and computers; it’s also used in dental and surgical instruments and implants. Tantalum’s major use is in electrical components for mobile phones, tablets, computers, and other devices. In particular, it’s used for capacitors and …

Element 72 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is hafnium. Hafnium is used in reactors in nuclear submarines and also helps make microchips smaller and faster. Hafnium is a neutron absorber and is used in nuclear reactor control rods in nuclear submarines. Its absorption cross-section for absorbing neutrons is about 600 times …

Element 71 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is lutetium. Lutetium can be used to determine the age of meteorites and is also used as a catalyst and in some cancer treatments. Lutetium is used to date meteorites and minerals using lutetium-hafnium dating. This uses the decay of lutetium-176 into hafnium-176, a …

Element 70 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is ytterbium. Ytterbium is found in the most accurate atomic clocks and is also used in studies of the brain. Like its predecessor, thulium, ytterbium is used in portable X-ray machines. Ytterbium-169 can be used as a radiation source for this purpose. Ytterbium-169 complexes …

Element 69 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is thulium. A rare element, thulium is used in portable X-ray machines and also in some banknotes. Thulium is, after promethium, the second-least abundant of the lanthanide elements. As a consequence, it’s more valuable than better known precious metals such as platinum and gold. …

Element 68 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is erbium. Erbium is used to make pink-tinted glass, in optical fibres, and in some types of dental surgery. Erbium compounds are usually pink. They’re often used to colour glass pink, for example in camera filters and the lenses of sunglasses. Erbium can also …

Element 67 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is holmium. Holmium is used in powerful magnets, in laser surgery, and have also been used for atomic data storage. Holmium has the highest magnetic strength of any element in the periodic table. Though it is not ferromagnetic at room temperature, like iron, cobalt …

Element 66 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is dysprosium. Dysprosium and its compounds are used in some computer hard drives, radiation dosimeters, and motors and generators for electric cars and wind turbines. Computer hard disk drives contain small amounts of dysprosium compounds in their surface coatings. These dysprosium compounds are highly …

Here’s the monthly summary of chemistry stories that have hit the news. This month features news on a new carbon allotrope in the form of an 18-carbon ring, a new family of fluorescent molecules found in shark skin, and more! Larger summary images for each item are provided below, along with links to articles and …

Element 65 in our International Year of the Periodic Table series is terbium. Terbium and its compounds are used in sonar and phone and TV screens, and some of its compounds have the interesting property of being triboluminescent. An alloy of terbium, dysprosium and iron, terfenol-D, has the unusual property of changing shape in magnetic …