Lutetium 176 Isotope Presentation

Lutetium-176 is an Isotope of the element Lutetium. Naturally, occurring Lutetium contains 2.6% of the radioactive isotope Lutetium 176 which has a half-life of 38billion years. Lutetium, derived from the Roman name of Paris, Lutetia, was first discovered in 1907 by the French Scientist George Urbain(Arnold 332).Other subsequent but separate discoveries were made by Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach and American chemist Charles James-all who worked independently to isolate the rare element. Lutetium is an element with an atomic number of 71, and its atomic symbol is Lu. It is a block F element and is classified under the group 3 in the periodic table. It belongs to period 6. Lutetium consists of 61 electrons and has six shells (Wilkinson 540). The number of electrons in each shell can be written as [2, 8, 18, 32, 9, 2] from the innermost shell to the outermost shell. Lutetium is a very heavy metal, which is why it classified in the periodic table as the last member of the lanthanide series of heavy rare earth metals.

Fig 1. Lutetium 176 is a radioactive isotope of Lutetium

Physical properties of Lutetium-176

It has a silver-white appearance.

It is not a magnetic material like most of the isotopes of rare earth metals.

It does not occur naturally by itself but can be obtained from Lutetium through atomic fission.

Forming 2.6% of the total amount of radioactive isotopes of Lutetium, it is the most abundant isotope of Lutetium 176

It exists in solid form, is slightly basic and has a hexagonal structure.

Chemical properties

Lutetium-176 is a radioactive isotope with a half-life of about 38 billion years, which is three times longer than that of the universe and seven times that of the earth.

Lutetium-176 decays to Hafnium 176 generating a beta particle and gamma rays of different energy levels. Otherwise, due to its long half-life, lutetium-176 is relatively stable under normal conditions.

Uses of Lutetium-176

It is used for dating the age of meteorites relative to the age of the earth due to its very long half-life of 38 billion years. The radioactive dating of meteorites and other alien rocks is increasingly becoming possible due to modern analytical methods that involve the dilution of Lutetium-176.

The Lutetium -176 isotopes is used in some special metal alloys such as those of hand watches used to shield delicate watch metals from magnetism.

Having some inert nature in itself, Lutetium-176 has come to be used as a special ingredient in making of chemical catalysts used in various chemical reactions. These chemical reactions include the cracking of hydrocarbons mainly in oil refineries (Wilkinson 540).

Due to its almost nonexistent level of toxicity, lutetium-176 is used to make medical equipment normally used during surgical procedures.

Lutetium-176 has also been extensively used in research. For example, it is used as one of the composites of scintillators and X-ray phosphors. The Lutetium-176 oxide has been known to have applications in the making of camera lenses and optical lenses.

Works Cited

Arnold, James R., and Thomas Sugihara. "The Decay Scheme of Natural Lutetium 176." Physical Review 90.2 (1953): 332.

Wilkinson, G., and H. G. Hicks. "Radioactive Isotopes of Lutetium and Hafnium." Physical Review 81.4 (1951): 540.