The image is based on ancient Swedish rock carvings.

Fact Box

Uses

Ytterbium is beginning to find a variety of uses, such as in memory devices and tuneable lasers. It can also be used as an industrial catalyst and is increasingly being used to replace other catalysts considered to be too toxic and polluting.

History

Ytterbium was isolated in 1878 by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac at the University of Geneva. The story began with yttrium, discovered in 1794, which was contaminated with other rare-earth elements (aka lanthanoids). In 1843, erbium and terbium were extracted from it, and then in 1878, de Marignac separated ytterbium from erbium. He heated erbium nitrate until it decomposed and then extracted the residue with water and obtained two oxides: a red one which was erbium oxide, and a white one which he knew must be a new element, and this he named ytterbium. Even this was eventually shown to contain another rare earth, lutetium, in 1907.