Where is lanthanum found in the world

Lanthanum is also used in carbon arc lamps lights and in medical tracers. Lanthanum mainly is obtained from lanthanum-rich monazite and bastnasite. Other lanthanum-bearing minerals include allanite and cerite. Skip to content Return to Periodic Table. Biological Rating. Return to Periodic Table. Lanthanum and other rare-earth compounds are used in carbon arc lighting, specifically in the film and television industry for studio lighting and projection. Lanthanum oxide La 2 O 3 , also called lanthana, improves the alkali resistance of glass and is used in making camera lenses and in other special glasses.

About 25 percent of the alloy mischmetal, used in making lighter flints, contains lanthanum. As an additive, small amounts of lanthanum are used to produce nodular cast iron. Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory. Live Science. The images may not be posted on any website, shared in any disc library, image storage mechanism, network system or similar arrangement. Pornographic, defamatory, libellous, scandalous, fraudulent, immoral, infringing or otherwise unlawful use of the Images is, of course, prohibited.

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Jump to main content. Periodic Table. Glossary Allotropes Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes. Discovery date Discovered by Carl Gustav Mosander Origin of the name The name is derived from the Greek 'lanthanein', meaning to lie hidden. Glossary Group A vertical column in the periodic table. Fact box. Glossary Image explanation Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements.

Appearance The description of the element in its natural form. Biological role The role of the element in humans, animals and plants. Natural abundance Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Uses and properties. Image explanation. The image is of a camera lens. Lanthanum is added to glass used in some camera lenses to improve the clarity of the images it can produce.

The flames in the background reflect the ease with which the element burns when ignited. A soft, silvery-white metal. It rapidly tarnishes in air and burns easily when ignited. Lanthanum metal has no commercial uses. However, its alloys have a variety of uses. A lanthanum-nickel alloy is used to store hydrogen gas for use in hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Lanthanum is also found in the anode of nickel metal hydride batteries used in hybrid cars. They increase the brightness and give an emission spectrum similar to sunlight. Lanthanum III oxide is used in making special optical glasses, as it improves the optical properties and alkali resistance of the glass.

Lanthanum salts are used in catalysts for petroleum refining. Biological role. Lanthanum has no known biological role. Both the element and its compounds are moderately toxic. Natural abundance. Lanthanum metal is usually obtained by reducing the anhydrous fluoride with calcium. Help text not available for this section currently. Elements and Periodic Table History.

He extracted it from cerium which had been discovered in Mosander noticed that while most of his sample of cerium oxide was insoluble, some was soluble and he deduced that this was the oxide of a new element. News of his discovery spread, but Mosander was strangely silent. Finally, Mosander explained his delay, saying that he had extracted a second element from cerium, and this he called didymium.

Atomic data. Glossary Common oxidation states The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom. Oxidation states and isotopes. Glossary Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey.

Relative supply risk An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. Recycling rate The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. Substitutability The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. Reserve distribution The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves. Political stability of top producer A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators.

Political stability of top reserve holder A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Supply risk. Relative supply risk 9. Russia 3 USA Political stability of top producer Young's modulus A measure of the stiffness of a substance.

Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Lanthanum Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. This week the element that resembles a humble, but crucial film star, that appears everywhere but is often forgotten about.

Brian Clegg uncovers the secret world of Lanthanum. The periodic table is a wonderful structure. In its neat, ordered way, it predicts the behaviour of atoms as they follow a step-by-step pattern of increasing atomic number.

At first glance, it's a simple matter of running across row after row. But take a closer look at barium and its obscure neighbour to the right, hafnium. Barium is atomic number There are 15 elements missing. On a modern table, these appear at the bottom in a separate, floating row.

They are the lanthanides - and we're taking a look at the element that gave its name to the whole group, lanthanum. For most of us, giving the name to that group is about all lanthanum is known for - so it comes as quite a surprise to discover just how many ways it is used - we'll find it everywhere from cameras to swimming pools.

But before we uncover the secret world of lanthanum, how did it end up sounding like a Victorian opium drink? It was one of the earlier lanthanides to be discovered, by the Swedish scientist Carl Gustav Mosander, working at the famous Karolinska Institute in , though it was before the pure metal was produced. One of the most reactive of the lanthanides, readily oxidising and bubbling away in water, lanthanum turned up unexpectedly in a cerium salt sample Mosander was working on.

It was because of its sneakily unexpected appearance in the sample that Mosander called it lanthanum, from the Greek word lanthano, meaning to escape notice - in fact the first recorded reference to it in calls it 'another metallic oxide, which has hitherto lain concealed in oxide of cerium'.

When it comes to using lanthanum, it best resembles a successful movie bit part player. Someone who never gets the lead role, but appears in film after film, solidly portraying different characters.