Dysprosium, A Silver-White Chemical Element Known By Paul-Du Boisbaudran

What is it? Dysprosium is a silver-white chemical element discovered in 1886 by a French scientist named Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. It wasn’t isolated until a different separation technique (ion-exchange) developed in the 1950s by a Canadian scientist Frank Spedding and his team. This rare element it is never naturally found. It is only made chemically. It can be found in minerals such as xenotime. Dysprosium is a member to the lanthanide family on the periodic table just like all the other rare elements. Shown in Fig.1 is when dysprosium is places on the periodic table. It is a solid that is very soft, easily cut by a knife. Its atomic number is 66, atomic mass is 162.5 and Dy is its symbol. Dysprosium is soft enough to get cut with
It was analyzed by a professor of chemistry at the University of Abo in Finland, Johan Gadolin. He discovered there was a new element, which a colleague named it, yttria. After a couple of more centuries, chemists found that yttria was actually a mixture of 9 different elements. All has never been seen before. That is where Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered that one of the 9 elements was dysprosium. Mining areas to find dysprosium are in USA, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil, China and Australia. Where is it found and how much of it is there? (abundance) According to US Congress, 136,000 tons was produced in 2010. In 2015 miners are going to try raising the amount to 185,000 ton. How does its use relate to economic, political, cultural or environmental factors? John Vidal says “because these "rare earths" are mined almost exclusively in China, it is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to source them in the required quantities.” It is unlikely for rare earth metals to run out, although it will take about 10 years for other counties to create new mined
This was tested on mice and calculated that 500g or more would be needed to risk a person’s life.
How do we obtain it? Dysprosium in Greek means ‘hard to obtain’. They original Greek word is ‘dysprositos’. It is very hard to obtain since scientist have to isolate it from the minerals that have dysprosium.

What is it used for? Dysprosium and other rare elements are in minerals like monazite and bastnaesite. It can also be in xenotime and fergusonite, although with a smaller amount. It can be isolated by solvent extraction or ion exchange. This rare element dissolves slowly once mixed with water or any halogen gasses. Dysprosium is good at catching neutrons so they use it in nuclear fuel rods. It helps adjust how hot a nuclear reaction can get, which is also used in power station to prevent any reactions from gets out of hand. The pure substance is not used very often since it is very reactive once collided with water and even air. One of the properties of dysprosium is that it is resistant to demagnetization at high temperature. Therefore it is used in the magnets, which are used in motors and engines. In that case dysprosium is in vehicles such as cars, motorbikes, etc. It’s also in most like iPods technologies and others. It is usually found with other rare elements such as erbium or