Samples Containing Rare Earth Elements

Overview

The Rare Earth (RE) elements include Y, La, and the Lanthanides (Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu). The chemistry of these elements is sufficiently similar that they can be treated as a group rather than individually. RE elements are technically the elements grouped as the 'Lanthanides', which are Ce thru Lu. However, chemists generally think of the Rare Earths as Sc, Y, La and the Lanthanides (Ce thru Lu) while others exclude Sc but include all of the others.

Inorganic Ventures has never worked with Promethium (Pm), which is a man-made, radioactive element. Although I have excluded Pm from these discussions, it can be safely assumed that it's chemistry is no different from the naturally occurring Lanthanides.

The following table shows the source of the names of the RE elements and is for those of you who, like myself, find the etymology interesting:

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