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Gadolinium
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Gadolinium
Gadolinium is a chemical element; it has symbol Gd and atomic number 64. It is a silvery-white metal when oxidation is removed. Gadolinium is a malleable and ductile rare-earth element. It reacts with atmospheric oxygen or moisture slowly to form a black oxide coating. Gadolinium below its Curie point of 20 °C (68 °F) is ferromagnetic, with an attraction to a magnetic field higher than that of nickel. Above this temperature it is the most paramagnetic element. It is found in nature only in an oxidized form. When separated, it usually has impurities of the other rare earths because of their similar chemical properties.
Gadolinium was discovered in 1880 by Jean Charles de Marignac, who detected its oxide by using spectroscopy. It is named after the mineral gadolinite, one of the minerals in which gadolinium is found, itself named for the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin. Pure gadolinium was first isolated by the chemist Félix Trombe in 1935.
Gadolinium possesses unusual metallurgical properties, to the extent that as little as 1% of gadolinium can significantly improve the workability and resistance to oxidation at high temperatures of iron, chromium, and related metals. Gadolinium as a metal or a salt absorbs neutrons and is, therefore, used sometimes for shielding in neutron radiography and in nuclear reactors.
Like most of the rare earths, gadolinium forms trivalent ions with fluorescent properties, and salts of gadolinium(III) are used as phosphors in various applications.
Gadolinium(III) ions in water-soluble salts are highly toxic to mammals. However, chelated gadolinium(III) compounds prevent the gadolinium(III) from being exposed to the organism, and the majority is excreted by healthy kidneys before it can deposit in tissues. Because of its paramagnetic properties, solutions of chelated organic gadolinium complexes are used as intravenously administered gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents in medical magnetic resonance imaging.
The main uses of gadolinium, in addition to use as a contrast agent for MRI scans, are in nuclear reactors, in alloys, as a phosphor in medical imaging, as a gamma ray emitter, in electronic devices, in optical devices, and in superconductors.
Gadolinium is the eighth member of the lanthanide series. In the periodic table, it appears between the elements europium to its left and terbium to its right, and above the actinide curium. It is a silvery-white, malleable, ductile rare-earth element. Its 64 electrons are arranged in the configuration of [Xe]4f75d16s2, of which the ten 4f, 5d, and 6s electrons are valence.
Like most other metals in the lanthanide series, three electrons are usually available as valence electrons. The remaining 4f electrons are too strongly bound: this is because the 4f orbitals penetrate the most through the inert xenon core of electrons to the nucleus, followed by 5d and 6s, and this increases with higher ionic charge. Gadolinium crystallizes in the hexagonal close-packed α-form at room temperature. At temperatures above 1,235 °C (2,255 °F), it forms or transforms into its β-form, which has a body-centered cubic structure.
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Gadolinium
Gadolinium is a chemical element; it has symbol Gd and atomic number 64. It is a silvery-white metal when oxidation is removed. Gadolinium is a malleable and ductile rare-earth element. It reacts with atmospheric oxygen or moisture slowly to form a black oxide coating. Gadolinium below its Curie point of 20 °C (68 °F) is ferromagnetic, with an attraction to a magnetic field higher than that of nickel. Above this temperature it is the most paramagnetic element. It is found in nature only in an oxidized form. When separated, it usually has impurities of the other rare earths because of their similar chemical properties.
Gadolinium was discovered in 1880 by Jean Charles de Marignac, who detected its oxide by using spectroscopy. It is named after the mineral gadolinite, one of the minerals in which gadolinium is found, itself named for the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin. Pure gadolinium was first isolated by the chemist Félix Trombe in 1935.
Gadolinium possesses unusual metallurgical properties, to the extent that as little as 1% of gadolinium can significantly improve the workability and resistance to oxidation at high temperatures of iron, chromium, and related metals. Gadolinium as a metal or a salt absorbs neutrons and is, therefore, used sometimes for shielding in neutron radiography and in nuclear reactors.
Like most of the rare earths, gadolinium forms trivalent ions with fluorescent properties, and salts of gadolinium(III) are used as phosphors in various applications.
Gadolinium(III) ions in water-soluble salts are highly toxic to mammals. However, chelated gadolinium(III) compounds prevent the gadolinium(III) from being exposed to the organism, and the majority is excreted by healthy kidneys before it can deposit in tissues. Because of its paramagnetic properties, solutions of chelated organic gadolinium complexes are used as intravenously administered gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents in medical magnetic resonance imaging.
The main uses of gadolinium, in addition to use as a contrast agent for MRI scans, are in nuclear reactors, in alloys, as a phosphor in medical imaging, as a gamma ray emitter, in electronic devices, in optical devices, and in superconductors.
Gadolinium is the eighth member of the lanthanide series. In the periodic table, it appears between the elements europium to its left and terbium to its right, and above the actinide curium. It is a silvery-white, malleable, ductile rare-earth element. Its 64 electrons are arranged in the configuration of [Xe]4f75d16s2, of which the ten 4f, 5d, and 6s electrons are valence.
Like most other metals in the lanthanide series, three electrons are usually available as valence electrons. The remaining 4f electrons are too strongly bound: this is because the 4f orbitals penetrate the most through the inert xenon core of electrons to the nucleus, followed by 5d and 6s, and this increases with higher ionic charge. Gadolinium crystallizes in the hexagonal close-packed α-form at room temperature. At temperatures above 1,235 °C (2,255 °F), it forms or transforms into its β-form, which has a body-centered cubic structure.
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