Scandium: Characteristics, Origin And Applications

Scandium: Characteristics, Origin and Applications

by

chocolover715

Historically considered a rare earth metal, Scandium is a transition metal with a chemical element symbol Sc and atomic number 21 (its number in the periodic table). It is one of the scarcest chemical elements available for extraction; it has only a few known sources worldwide where it is found co-present in rare earth deposits and deposits of uranium compounds.

Characteristics

Scandium has a silvery white color with a hexagonal crystal structure when seen under the microscope. In its extracted, original form, it is a soft silver metal that is highly susceptible to weathering and dilution in acids. When exposed to air, its outer sheen casts a light yellow or light pink hue as a reaction to oxidation.

Scandium is scarce for extraction, but mineralogists consider scandium to be the 50th most common element on earth and the 35th most common element found in the earth s crust. It is almost comparable in availability to cobalt. The reason for this seeming irony is that while scandium is relatively common in the earth s crust, its distribution makes it very difficult to harvest in a wide scale. Scandium is found mostly in trace amounts scattered sparsely among

many kinds of minerals which include uranium and rare earth metals.

Origin and History

Scandium has a slow development compared to other metals and chemical elements. It was first discovered by Lars Fredrik Nilson in 1879 and named after Scandinavia where it was found in minerals of euxenite and gadolinite thru a process called spectral analysis.

Despite its relatively early discovery, scandium s potential for various applications were only tested and exploited in the 1930s. This led to the development of metallic scandium in 1937. During that time, scandium resources were as limited as it is at present. This and the difficulty in

preparing metallic scandium led to its slow development.

It would take another 30 years before applications for scandium were further developed; in 1971, it was discovered that scandium mixed with aluminium alloy can strengthen the alloy for commercial and industrial usage. Scandium-aluminium alloy has remained to be scandium s only major application in industries for decades since.

At present, there are only three mines that commercially produce scandium: Zhovti Vody in Ukraine (in uranium and iron mines); Kola peninsula, Russia (in apatite mines); and Bayan Obo, China (rare earth mines). Other known scandium-rich deposits in the world include Madagascar in Africa and Norway in Europe. Neither is being exploited for their scandium contents.

Uses and Applications

Regular and stable sources of scandium are limited. With no promise of a long term production of scandium, its array of uses and applications in industries, commerce, and technology are not fully identified.

This notwithstanding, scandium still enjoys promising applications particularly in its ability to strengthen aluminium alloys. Only 0.5% of scandium is enough to significantly strengthen aluminium alloys, resulting to scandium-aluminium alloys used in aircrafts, sports equipments, and firearms. Scandium-stabilized zirconia is also being recognized as a high efficiency electrolyte for use in fuel cells, particularly solid oxide fuel cells.

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