This date in 1797 was the birthdate of Carl Mosander: Swedish chemist who discovered the element terbium. 10 facts about his discovery.
Terbium is silvery-white, rare earth metal that is malleable and ductile. It is soft enough to be cut with a knife. Pure terbium is stable in air but reacts with cold water.
Its chemical symbol is Tb and its atomic number is 65.
Its melting point is 1629 K (1356 °C/2473 °F)
Its boiling point is 3396 K (3123 °C/5653 °F)
Mosander discovered it in 1843, as an impurity in yttrium oxide. However, his discovery wasn’t confirmed for some time and it was 1905 before pure compounds were produced.
Like erbium and ytterbium, terbium is named after the village of Ytterby in Sweden.
It is twice as common in the Earth’s crust as silver, although that still makes it one of the rarer rare earth metals. It is never found in its pure form in nature, but is contained within minerals such as monazite, bastnasite and cerite.
Because it is rare and therefore expensive, it has few uses in industry. Its compounds fluoresce green in ultraviolet light, so it gets used in fluorescent lamps and Television and monitor cathode-ray tubes.
World production is 10 tonnes a year. The richest source at the moment is southern China, but a further rich supply was found in 2018 off the coast of Japan's Minamitori Island, which is said to be enough to meet global demand for 420 years.
Terbium has no biological role. It is mildly toxic and irritating if it comes into contact with Skin or Eyes. Its toxicity has not been investigated in detail.
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