Discovery Information
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Who: C.F. Aver von Welsbach |
When: 1885 |
Where: Austria |
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Name Origin
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Greek: prasios (green) and didymos (twin); from its green salts. |
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Sources
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Can be found in rare earth minerals such as bastnasite and monazite. Obtained from the same salts as neodymium.
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Uses
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Praseodymium forms the core of carbon arc lights which are used in the motion picture industry for studio lighting and projector lights.
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Used for coloring glass and ceramic glazes. Also used with neodymium to make lenses for glass maker's goggles because they filter out the yellow light present in glass blowing. It is alloyed
with magnesium to create high strength metals.
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Notes
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Like all rare earth elements, praseodymium is of low to moderate toxicity. Praseodymium has no known biological role.
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Dr. Matthew Sellars of the Laser Physics Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia slowed down a
light pulse to a few hundred meters per second using Praseodymium mixed with silicate crystal.
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