Discovery Information
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Who: Georges Urbain |
When: 1907 |
Where: France |
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Name Origin
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From Lutetia the ancient name of Paris. |
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Sources
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Found with ytterbium in gadolinite and xenotime. |
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Uses
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This element is very expensive to obtain in useful quantities and therefore it has very few commercial uses. Used in alloys
and can be used as a catalyst in cracking, hydrogenation, polymerization and alkylation.
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Notes
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Because of the difficulty in producing pure lutetium it is one of the most expensive metals, costing around six times as much
per gram as gold.
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