  Articles and gems - Uses of europium
Various internet sources (such as this one,
this one and
this one) have reported the theft of
460 kilograms of europium oxide from the Kyrgyz Chemical-Mechanical Plant in Central Asia in January of 2003.
Apparently, this europium oxide powder had been acquired in the past for intended use in the manufacture of
control rods for nuclear reactions.
The theft sounds a bit puzzling. If you search the web, however, you will find sites that
compare rare earth elements (REEs) to precious metals like gold and platinum. Batches of rare earths are offered on
various metal auction sites. Europium (Eu) is one of those rare earth elements.
Rare earth elements are indeed very expensive, partly because it is very expensive to extract and
concentrate them from their ores. Apparently, their price has recently shot up after China - a major
REE-producing country - started limiting its exports
of REEs. Of all the REEs, europium is reported to be the most expensive.
So the thieves might be seeing the europium oxide as an investment opportunity, but shares, gold and diamonds –
or even a smart piece of real estate - would probably be a lot easier to sell. Unlike with gold and platinum
(precious metals), you cannot create jewelry from europium and the average citizen has no use for it. Europium oxide
cannot be used to make explosives or nuclear devices either. So what is europium? What is it good for?
Europium is a metal as soft as lead. It can have the divalent
oxidation state (mainly in rocks) but in the p,T and redox conditions of the earth's surface,
it strongly prefers to be trivalent.
That makes the metal highly reactive and, as a result, toxic, corrosive, irritant and particularly flammable. It readily
reacts with oxygen and water if not protected and handled carefully (stored under oil, for instance, and kept away
from heat).
The metal's oxide is therefore much more stable. Note: This does not mean that anyone who happens to have
europium metal in his possession should simply expose it to air.
Wrapped europium metal in various stages of oxidation:
Europium has many technological uses. Europium complexes are for instance
used to distinguish genuine bank notes from falsified ones
and have applications in analytical chemistry. Examples of other applications of Eu involve CRT and flat
screens for color TVs and computers, and laser equipment.
Europium absorbs neutrons quite well and is or was therefore used in control rods in, for example, uranium plants in
Russia and Ukraine.
One new development focuses on the commercial application of this particular (spent) europium (Eu-152, 154 and 155)
as a much-needed gamma source for sterilization purposes (against microorganisms). That would take care of this
nuclear-waste storage problem as well.
By the way, europium's naturally occurring isotopes - Eu-151 and 153 - are not radioactive. However, REEs
and actinides - the latter are radioactive - often occur together in nature because of their chemical similarities.
previous page
© SmarterScience
http://www.smarterscience.com 
Most recent changes to this page:
November 18, 2006
|
