Lutetium
This historic puck of Lutetium metal was acquired by Lipmann Walton in 2011 as part of a mixed parcel of rare earth metals and compounds.
This certificate shows date of production and quality standard for a puck of Lutetium metal.
This historic puck of Lutetium metal was acquired by Lipmann Walton in 2011 as part of a mixed parcel of rare earth metals and compounds.
Lutetium Facts
Radioactive unstable isotopes of Lutetium have also found niche uses. The Lu-176 isotope is used to deduce the age of meteorites based on its rate of decay to Hf-176. Lu-177 has also found use as a radionucleotide medicine, most recently in Lu-177 vipivotide tetraxetan to treat prostate cancer, which was approved in the US and EU in 2022. The drug attaches to proteins on certain prostate cancer cells and delivers radiation directly into cancerous cells.
Atomic no.
Relative Atomic Mass
Melting Point
Boiling Point
Density
Electrical Resistivity
Young's Modulus
Heat Capacity
Abundance
Thermal Conductivity
71
174.97
1663 °C
3402 °C
9.84 g/cm3
79×10-8 m Ω
68.6 GPa
26.86 J/K⋅mol
0.8 ppm
16 W/m⋅K
Lutetium (Lu, atomic number 71) is a lanthanide series metal, making it a member of the group of metals better known as Rare Earths. Its name draws on the Roman name for Paris, Lutetia.
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Lutetium is the densest, hardest, and heaviest rare earth. It is the 50th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust at a 0.8ppm, and the second-least abundant rare earth after Thulium (with the exception of short-lived and radioactive Promethium).
Nevertheless, it is still more common than silver, gold, or the platinum group metals. However, as with all rare earths, Lutetium is only ever found in small traces within minerals such as Monazite. As it is rarely traded and there is a general lack of data on these trades, Lutetium’s true market value is indeterminate.
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The discovery of Lutetium is somewhat mired in controversy. Georges Urbain, Karl Auer von Welsbach, and Charles James each discovered the existence of this element at almost the same time in 1907. James, working at the University of New Hampshire, was the first to extract the element, but Urbain, working out of the Sorbonne in Paris, was the first to report his discovery.
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As with most Rare Earths, Lutetium is found in a diffuse range of applications ranging from petroleum cracking catalysts to position emission tomography (PET) detectors which measure cellular activity, and in phosphors for certain LED lights. Lutetium Tantalate (LuTaO4) is densest known white material, making it ideal scintillation matrix for x-ray phosphors.​
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With the collapse of the Soviet Union, certain metals which rarely featured in Western technology—such as Lutetium—began to make their way out from behind the Iron Curtain. Lipmann Walton began trading Lutetium metal acquired from stockpiles most likely produced in Kyrgyzstan at the Kadamjay area Kashka Rare Earth Processing plant located near the Kutessay II rare earth mine deposit. While the Kadamjay rare earth hub housed one of the only plants outside of China capable of producing lutetium metal at scale, it remains derelict after the Kyrgyz government expropriated the mine from a Canadian junior mining firm in 2012.