Tm: Thulium
Atomic Number 69
How was it discovered?
A Swedish chemist named Per Teodor Cleve was
trying to purify a compound named Erbium. (This
was originally separated from yttrium) As he did
this, he separated 2 substances from Erbium. One
of them was brown and the other one was a green
substance. It is one of the rare earths which are in
the lanthanide group. Thulium is actually one of the
least abundant of them all.
Name & Symbol Origin
-Cleve decided to call one of the substances he
found Holmia which is the element holmium. The
green substance he decided to call Thulia which,
according to Wikipedia, was named after a place in
Scandinavia called Thule.
-The symbol was actually Tu before and then was
changed to Tm.
Physical and Chemical Properties
-Thulium, when it’s pure, is bright silver grayish
color.
-Atomic weight: 168.9
-Room Temp: solid
- It will begin to tarnish once it’s been exposed to
air but it does this slowly.
-Thulium is malleable and ductile to the point where
a knife can cut through it.
-It makes compounds with O2 and halogens which
then make it turn this green color.
By: Anavel Rivera
How It’s Used Today
-According to Britannica.com, thulium in it’s
natural state will be radioactive in about 128 days
which is the half life.
-Because it can be radioactive, it’s used for
gamma radiation to take X-rays.
-An example would be how the holmium laser is
used for tissue ablation, because it gives a
precise laser since it has about a 0.5mm injury
zone.
-Because of the wide use of technology within the
medical field they are continued being used for
multiple surgeries and X-ray machines.
-There’s some lasers that can be used such as the
laser points a lot of people have, but with a
thulium laser fiber you must wear eye protection
because they carry them in 10 W of power.
BPH: englarged prostate gland
LaseMD Ultra laser: treats pigmentation,
wrinkles, rejuventation
Cost of Thulium and Processing
-During the 1950s Thulium began to be sold
commercially. It was being sold by kilograms and it
was around $4600 when it first began to be and by
the 1990s it was around $13300 per kilogram. This
was 99% pure Thulium.
-It can’t be found pure, it is found in small amounts
within minerals. It’s mostly taken out from monazite
which is a mineral, and it is said to have 0.007
thulium. (ion exchange)
-It’s oxide is reduced by lanthanum and then it’s
distilled to separate the metal.
References:
https://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/tm.htm#:~:t
ext=Thulium%20is%20a%20lanthanide%20element,tha
n%20most%20rare%2Dearth%20elements
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thulium#:~:text=Thulium%2
0was%20discovered%20by%20Swedish,some%20othe
r%20rare%20earth%20elements).&text=Thulium's%20a
tomic%20symbol%20was%20once,this%20was%20cha
nged%20to%20Tm
.
https://www.britannica.com/science/thulium
https://www.chemicool.com/elements/thulium.html