Five samples of lutetium
19 January 2024
Lutetium is a chemical element with atomic number 71 and the symbol Lu. It is a silvery-white metal with relatively few uses. One radioactive isotope, Lu-169, has a half-life of 38 billion years and is therefore useful in determining the age of minerals. Lutetium is sometimes used as a chemical catalyst and a component in some alloys. It is also used in nuclear medicine in treating certain tumors.
It was independently discovered in 1907 by three researchers, Georges Urbain, Carl Auer von Weisbach, and Charles James, who managed to separate it from the element ytterbium in mineral samples. After much debate and accusations of academic theft, Urbain was given priority credit for the discovery. Urbain named the element lutécium, after Lutecia, the Latin name for Paris.
The English spelling of lutetium appeared that same year in announcements of Urbain’s discovery. In 1949, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry chose the English spelling as the standard.
Sources:
Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements—Part 3—Rivalry of Scientists in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.” Foundations of Chemistry, 12 November 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10698-022-09452-9.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. lutetium, n.
Urbain, G. “Un nouvel élément: le lutécium, résultant du dédoublement de l’ylterhium de Marignac.” Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, 145, 4 November 1907, 759–62 at 761. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Image credit: Heinrich Pniok, 2010. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NonDerivative 3.0 (US) License.