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Rundown about Holmium

Holmium(Ho) is the one of the lanthanides element with an atomic number 67. Holmium is a soft, bright, silvery-white rare earth metal which is malleable and ductile. Isolated holmium is stable in dry air at room temperature, but it easily reacts with water and corrodes readily. In addition, holmium burns when temperature of air is heated up forming holmium oxide (Ho2O3). In most compounds holmium exists in its trivalent state. Holmium reacts with all halogens. The one who discovered holmium was Swedish chemist Per Theodor Cleve. The discovery was made in 1879, but it was 1911 when Swedish botanic Otto Holmberg isolated pure holmium. The French chemist Paul Lecoq de Boisbaudran could only isolate the holmium oxide in 1886 by fractional precipitation. The name holmium comes from the Greek word “Holmia” meaning the old name of Stockholm. Holmium is very reactive element that it almost not possible to find it as pure. Therefore, as other rare earth metals holmium is found in minerals like gadolinite, monazite and other minerals. Holmium is the 56th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust with 1.4 ppm concentration. The monazite is the one mineral source of holmium which is commercially extracted from this mineral by ion exchange technique. The price of holmium is relatively low for a rare earth metal making about $1000 per kilogram. Holmium as other rare earth metals has enough applications.
Applications:
Holmium is used to create the strongest artificially generated magnetic fields
Holmium is used as a burnable poison to regulate nuclear reactors due to its ability to absorb nuclear fission-bred neutrons
Holmium is used in solid state lasers like yttrium-iron-garnet and yttrium-lanthanide-fluoride which are found in microwave equipment
Holmium lasers are used in dental, medical, and fiber optical applications
Holmium is used as colorant for cubic zirconia and glass, providing yellow and red colors
Holmium, one of its isotopes which is Ho-166m1, is used in calibration of gamma-ray spectrophotometers

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