Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Europium Compounds

David Marx - 12-9-2004 at 21:04

Does anyone have any europium laying around gathering dust? I could really use some. I have some nice red tinted Ray-sorb glassware or some deuterium oxide I would be willing to swap for any europium.

vulture - 13-9-2004 at 00:20

Color TV pixels contain europium compounds...

JohnWW - 13-9-2004 at 01:02

What do you want to use the europium for? I understand that it is used in some strongly ferromagnetic alloys, being a rare-earth metal about the middle of the lanthanide series which means it has close to the maximum number of unpaired 4f electrons. This is also why it forms stable Eu(II) compounds as well as Eu(III), having 7 unpaired 4f electrons in the former.

John W.

JustMe - 13-9-2004 at 09:15

As more people have become interested in "collecting elements," all kinds of stuff shows up on ebay now. Currently (9-13-04) there are at least two auctions for Europium metal, plus several Europium compounds (oxide, etc).

Y'gotta "pay" for your hobby!

Good luck!

Alkali - 13-9-2004 at 18:46

Hi!

Europium metal is actually the most reactive metal of the rare-earths followed by cerium, lanthanum, neodymium and praseodymium.
Its reaction grade with water is almost the same as calcium metal.
It's also one of the more expensive in these series and in fact one of the rarest.
Also, it's an interesting metal, if you leave it some seconds in the open air it will form a multicolor oxide layer in its surface. Very interesting feature indeed.
I think this is clearly seen in one of these eBay auctions.

I think I will try to get some of it one of these days for my collection.