Skip to main content

Europium Metal and Its Applications

Europium(Eu) is one of the rare earth metals with atomic number 63. In 1886, French chemist Eugene-AntoleDemarcay identified europium by spectroscopic lines in “samarium”. In 1901, europium was successfully isolated by using repeated crystallizations of samarium magnesium nitrate. Afterwards, in 1904 French chemist Georges Urbain also succeeded in purifying europium by separating it from impure gadolinium using bismuth magnesium nitrate. Europium is named after continent Europe.Europium is a moderately hard, ductile and silvery-white metal that readily oxidizes in air and water. Europium has no significant biological role and is relatively non-toxic compared to other heavy metals. Europium is the one of the least abundant element in universe; nearly 5*10-8% of all matter in universe is europium. Europium has the second lowest melting point and the lowest density among all lanthanides.
Europium is used in the printing of euro banknotes. It glows red under UV light and frogeries can be detected by lack of this red glow
Europium is used in manufacture of fluorescent glass
Europium is used low-energy light bulbs contained a little amount of europium to give more natural light by balancing the blue light with a little red light
Europium is used as excellent absorber of neutrons, making it valuable in control rods for nuclear reactors
Europium-doped plastic is used as a laser material
Europium-doped plastic is used in making thin super-conducting alloys
Europium salts are used for newer phosphorescent powder and paints
Europium is used in quantum memory chips which can reliably store information for days at a time; these could allow sensitive quantum data to be stored to a hard disk-like device and shipped around the country
Europium fluorescence is used to interrogate biomolecular interactions in drug-discovery screens
Europium is used in manufacture of fluorescent glass

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Carbon Nanotube Threads

Since its discovery, carbon nanotube (CNT) has attracted many interests in different technology fields due to its extraordinary properties. Properties such as, high strength, great electrical and thermal conductivity, light weight and flexibility made CNT one of the best materials for wide range of applications. However, from its name it can be understood that CNT is a nanoscale material which is very small to be applied for the production of daily products. Researchers all around the world are working on finding methods and techniques which could produce new materials with the extraordinary properties of CNT. Image retrieved from:  https://worldindustrialreporter.com/strong-light-flexible-carbon-nanotubes-threads-with-ultrahigh-conductivity/ One of these research is focusing on the production of high strength threads that can be used in the manufacturing of fabrics, cables and ropes. An international group of scientists were able to produce a flexible conductive thread th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Multi Walled Carbon Nanotube Dispersions

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)  have attracted enormous attention in recent years due to its unique physical, electronic, optical and potential applications in materials science and nanotechnology. The van der Waals interaction between tubes, however, makes CNTs aggregate in most organic solvents and aqueous solutions, which is the major limitation of their practical applications.Various approaches have been studied to alter the CNT surface to promote the dispersion of individual nanotubes and prevent their reaggregation. On the basis of this widely accepted viewpoint, numerous techniques such as covalent bonding, surfactant coating and polymer wrapping have been developed for surface modification or sidewall functionalization.These methods, however, are complicated, time-consuming and cause permanent damage to the CNT structure and properties of the surface, which produces residues of the dispersion agent for the final product. Figure: Single Walled Carbon Nanotube (SWCNT) It ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles/Nanopowder and Applications

General Information about Magnesium Oxide Magnesium oxide which has the chemical formula of MgO, is a white hygroscopic solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of Magnesium. It is a white powder at room temperature. Magnesium Oxide has very high melting point (2825  o C) and boiling point (3600  o C).                                                                                                                                                                                Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles/Nanopowder an...
Post a Comment
Read more