the.com/lutetium
The last lanthanide, named after Paris and so rare nobody bothered to use it.
means A silvery-white rare-earth metal, the densest and hardest of the lanthanides (atomic number 71), used sparingly as a catalyst and in specialized research.
from From Lutetia, the Latin name of the Roman settlement that became Paris — the city where the French chemist Georges Urbain isolated it in the early 20th century. He named his discovery 'lutecium' for his home city; the spelling was later standardized to 'lutetium.' The element's discovery was contested, with separate claims arising around the same time, but Urbain's Parisian christening stuck.
- name origin
- Lutetia, the ancient Roman name for Paris
- discovery feud
- Three chemists claimed it independently in 1907
- hardest lanthanide
- Densest and hardest of all rare earths
- barely useful
- Almost no commercial applications despite full research
- atomic age
- Used to date meteorites and Earth's oldest rocks
for instance
lutetium-176 — stable isotope making up 97.41% of all naturally occurring lutetium on earth