The chemistry and scope of lutetium  and lutetium compounds is reviewed here. We manufacture all these compounds and in most instances with these rare earth products , it is important to know the method of manufacture, solubilities, assays and trace impurities.

Rare earth compounds were named not because the individual rare earth elements are rare but because each individual rare earth element rarely exists as a single element but as a mixture of rare earth elements. Lutetium (Lutetia meaning Paris) was independently discovered in 1907 by French scientist Georges Urbain, Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach, and American chemist Charles James. All of these men found lutetium as an impurity in the mineral ytterbiawhich was thought by Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac (and most others) to consist entirely of the element ytterbium.

The separation of lutetium from Marignac's ytterbium was first described by Urbain and the naming honor therefore went to him. He chose the names neoytterbium (new ytterbium) and lutecium for the new element but neoytterbium was eventually reverted back to ytterbium and in 1949 the spelling of element 71 was changed to lutetium.

The dispute on the priority of the discovery is documented in two articles in which Urbain and von Welsbach accuse each other of publishing results influenced by the published research of the other.

The Commission on Atomic Mass, which was responsible for the attribution of the names for the new elements, settled the dispute in 1909 by granting priority to Urbain and adopting his names as official ones. An obvious problem with this decision was that Urbain was one of the four members of the commission.

Welsbach proposed the names cassiopium for element 71 (after the constellation Cassiopeia) and aldebaranium for the new name of ytterbium but these naming proposals were rejected (although many German scientists in the 1950s called the element 71 cassiopium).

Ironically, Charles James, who had modestly stayed out of the argument as to priority, worked on a much larger scale than the others, and undoubtedly possessed the largest supply of lutetium at the time.

The composition of monozite ore is the basis for rare earth impurities found in lutetium compounds and the level of impurities is directly related to the separation and source of these ores. Found with almost all other rare-earth metals but never by itself, lutetium is very difficult to separate from other elements. The principal commercially viable ore of lutetium is the rare earth phosphate mineral monazite: (Ce, La, etc.) PO₄ which contains 0.003% of the element. The abundance of lutetium in the Earth crust is only about 0.5 mg/kg. The main mining areas are China, United States, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Australia. The world production of lutetium (in the form of oxide) is about 10 tonnes per year.  

Level of Impurities:

 99.9%(REO)  1000ppm total rare earth oxide impurities

99.99%(REO)  100ppm total rare earth oxide impurities

99.999%(REO)  10ppm total rare earth oxide impurities

99.9999%(REO)  1ppm total rare earth oxide impurities

For a certificate of analysis for any of these products ordered contact: techservice@rareearthproducts.com

Lutetium chloride, bromide and nitrates are isolated as the hexahydrates and are very soluble in water. Anhydrous halides are also available. Lutetium acetate is somewhat soluble in water. (It is important to work with the manufacturer of your rare earth products because in the case of acetates the solubility varies widely depending on the method of manufacture and reaction conditions.

A new exciting lutetium compound is lutetium trifluoroacetate which is very soluble in water and has new uses as a catalyst in organic synthesis. Lutetium oxalate, carbonate and sulfate are insoluble in water and exist as a defined hydrate. These compounds can also be dehydrated.

Another example of purchasing rare earth compounds from a known manufacturer is lutetium fluoride. The rare earth fluorides are used in advanced material  films, lens and glasses. In virtually all applications the fluoride should be carbonate free. Rare Earth Products, Inc. uses a proprietary process to make carbonate free rare earth fluorides.

Rare Earth Products, Inc makes the most extensive list of rare earth metal beta diketonates. These organometallic compounds are used for MOCVD, spin coating, catalysts and NMR shift reagents to name a few advanced applications. The compounds offered include rare earth metal complexes with :

acetylacetonate or 2,4-pentanedionate ACAC

 hepatfluorodimethyloctanedionate FOD

hexafluoroacetylacetonate HFAC

tetrametylheptanedionate TMHD

  trifluroacetylacetonate TFAC

chiral ligands OPT etc

 Most of these compounds are used because of  the physical vapor pressure, volatility and organic solvent solubility. Contact our technical service department to get physical data such as melting points, sublimation temperatures,  solubility,  boiling points,  etc - techservice@rareearthproducts.com.

Rare Earth Products, Inc also manufactures the organic soluble compounds lutetium 2-ethylhexanoate and lutetium cyclohexanebutyrate. These metal organic  compounds are soluble in organic solvents. We can also custom synthesize various rare earth  compounds by adding various ligands, dehydrating and coordinating various organic solvents to enhance non polar solubility. Contact techservice@rareearthproducts.com.

The intermetallics lutetium sulfide, lutetium selenide and lutetium telluride are available upon request. Lutetium trifluoromethanesulfonate or lutetium triflate is available and useful as a Friedel -Crafts catalyst as the anhydrous salt or the hydrate. A new compound lutetium thenoyltrifluoroacetonate is used as a thermal laser dye.

 

 

 

Lutetium

L, 7111	Lutetium acetate hydrate, 99.9% (REO)	[ 18779-08-3 ]	2gm	$30.00
			10gm	$142.00
L, 7125	Lutetium acetate hydrate, 99.99% (REO)	[ 18779-08-3 ]	1gm	$26.00
			5gm	$84.00
L, 7103K	Lutetium acetylacetonate, 99.9%(REO)		1gm	$26.00
			5gm	$96.00
L, 7114	Lutetium bromide hydrate, 99.99% (REO)		1gm	$26.00
			5gm	$85.00
L, 7116	Lutetium carbonate, 99.9% (REO)	[ 5895-53-4 ]	2gm	$50.00
			10gm	$235.00
L, 7126	Lutetium carbonate, 99.99% (REO)	[ 5895-53-4 ]	1gm	$28.00
			5gm	$131.00
L, 7112	Lutetium chloride hexahydrate, 99.9% (REO)	[ 15230-79-2 ]	2gm	$30.00
			10gm	$138.00
L, 7127	Lutetium chloride hexahydrate, 99.99% (REO)	[ 15230-79-2 ]	1gm	$26.00
			5gm	$93.00
L, 7123	Lutetium chloride, anhydrous, 99.9% (REO)	[ 10099-66-8 ]	2gm	$49.00
			10gm	$232.00
L, 7107	Lutetium cyclohexanebutyrate, 99.9% (REO)		1gm	$36.00
			5gm	$167.00
L, 7106	Lutetium 2-ethylhexanoate, 99.9% (REO)		2gm	$59.00
			10gm	$276.00
L, 7113	Lutetium fluoride, 99.9% (REO)	[ 13760-81-1 ]	1gm	$28.00
			5gm	$131.00
L, 7128	Lutetium fluoride, 99.99% (REO)	[ 13760-81-1 ]	1gm	$31.00
			5gm	$143.00
L, 7104K	Lutetium hexafluoroacetylacetonate, 99.9% (REO)		2gm	$80.00
			10gm	$378.00
L, 7115	Lutetium nitrate hexahydrate, 99.9% (REO)	[ 10099-67-9 ]	5gm	$72.00
			25gm	$336.00
L, 7129	Lutetium nitrate hexahydrate, 99.99% (REO)	[ 10099-67-9 ]	1gm	$26.00
			5gm	$85.00
L, 7117	Lutetium oxalate decahydrate, 99.9% (REO)	[ 26677-69-0 ]	2gm	$50.00
			10gm	$235.00
L, 7130	Lutetium oxalate decahydrate, 99.99% (REO)	[ 26677-69-0 ]	1gm	$27.00
			5gm	$126.00
L, 7110	Lutetium oxide, 99.99% (REO)	[ 12032-20-1 ]	2gm	$29.00
			10gm	$135.00
L, 7110Q	Lutetium oxide, 99.999% (REO)	[ 12032-20-1 ]	1gm	$32.00
			5gm	$150.00
L, 7122	Lutetium phosphate, 99.9% (REO)		2gm	$54.00
			10gm	$254.00
L, 7119	Lutetium sulfate octahydrate, 99.9% (REO)	[ 13473-77-3 ]	2gm	$54.00
			10gm	$254.00
L, 7131	Lutetium sulfate octahydrate, 99.99% (REO)	[ 13473-77-3 ]	1gm	$36.00
			5gm	$170.00
L, 7118	Lutetium sulfide, 99.9% (REO)		1gm	$50.00
			5gm	$233.00
L, 7135	Lutetium trifluoroacetate, 99.9% (REO)		1gm	$60.00
			5gm	$279.00
L, 7108	Lutetium trifluoromethanesulfonate, 99.9% (REO)		1gm	$51.00
			5gm	$237.00
T, 7101K	Tris(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionato)lutetium, 99.9% (REO)		1gm	$32.00
			5gm	$150.00