What is Scandium?
Scandium is a less well-known chemical element but plays a vital role in various applications. It is soft and silvery-white in appearance and belongs to the metal group. It is unique in the sense that it easily oxidizes when exposed to air, resulting in a yellowish to pinkish hue.
It oxidizes easily because of the loss of electrons. Once thought to be a rare metal, it is now ranked 50 on the list of abundant elements. Although it belongs to the metal group, it is soft and its density is three times that of water.
Where is Scandium obtained?
Scandium is found in over 800 minerals and is usually in the form of an oxide: scandium oxide. The known concentrated sources of scandium are gadolinite, euxenite, and thortveitite. It is also a by-product of mining ores like zirconium, titanium, aluminum, and uranium.
History of Scandium
The inventor of the periodic table, Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist, was able to predict the presence and properties of scandium in 1869. He called it ekaboron because the properties are quite similar to boron. In 1879, a Swedish chemist by the name of Lars Fredrick Nilson, examined the spectra of gadolinite and euxenite. How did they come up with the name Scandium? It was named after the Latin word Scandia, because the mineral was found to exist only in the Scandinavian Peninsula.
Classification, Properties and Characteristics of Scandium
Scandium is a light, soft metal, but when exposed to air, it gets pinkish or yellowish. It is almost the same in density as aluminum but has a higher melting point. It has the potential to be used in aircraft, but is seldom used because it is more expensive than aluminum.
Lewis Dot Structure of Scandium
Bohr’s Atomic Model
Atomic Data of Scandium
Physical Properties of Scandium
| Color | silvery white |
| Odor | odorless |
| Taste | tasteless |
| Atomic Mass | 44.955 908(5) |
| Weight | 44.9559 |
| Density | 2.99 g/cm3 |
| Atomic Radius | 1.62 Å |
| Ionization Energy | 6.828 eV |
| Covalent Radius | 1.70 Å |
| Ionic Radius | 72.3 |
| Electronic Gain Enthalpy | unknown |
| Electron Negativity | 1.54 |
| Electron Affinity | 18.139 kJ/mol |
| Melting Point | 1814 K (1541 °C, 2806 °F) |
| Boiling Point | 3109 K (2836 °C, 5136 °F) |
Chemical Properties of Scandium
| Atomic Number | 21 |
| Group | 3 |
| Period | 4 |
| Block | d |
| Electronic Configuration | [Ar]3d14s2 |
| Combustion | Flammable in the form of dust and exposed to spark or flame |
| Chemical Reactivity | Highly reactive |
| Valency of Element | 3 |
Different States of Scandium
Scandium is rare on earth and belongs to a group of transition metals. A typical characteristic of metal is that it is solid at room temperature. Although it is subject to melting when the right temperature is reached. Scandium has a high boiling and melting point. The reactive nature of scandium is the reason why it oxidizes easily when exposed to air.
What are the common uses of Scandium?
- It is used in the aerospace industry. It is specifically used in aluminum-scandium alloys to be used in the components of aerospace.
- Scandium is used as part of sports equipment like golf iron shafts, fishing rods, baseball bats, and bicycle frames.
- Scandium compounds like scandium iodide are used in mercury vapor lamps. It mimics sunlight in a studio setting, which is usually the case in the film and television industry.
- Scandium is used as a tracing agent in oil refineries.
- It is used to make high-intensity stadium lights.
- Diluted scandium sulfate is useful in the agriculture sector. It is used to facilitate germination of seeds of wheat, corn, and peas.
Price of Scandium
Scandium is a pricey element. Thus, the reason why only a few applications use it. The average cost of scandium is $1400 per 100 grams.
Interesting facts about Scandium
- Don’t you know that scandium has a high oxidizing property? When exposed to air, it forms scandium oxide on the surface, causing its color to change to pinkish or yellowish.
- Don’t you know that there’s plenty of scandium in the sun and moon? The amount of scandium in the sun and moon is greater when compared to the earth.
- Scandium is spread thinly across the earth’s surface. Scandium is mined in Madagascar, Russia, Norway, China, and Kazakhstan.
- The United States’ total amount of produced scandium remains a trade secret.
- Scandium is one of the few elements that doesn’t have biological significance. An average human ingests less than 0.1 mcg of scandium per day and the health effects remain unknown.
- Scandium-aluminum alloys are better than the rest because of their improved strength. It is also resistant to recrystallization. It improves the metal’s resistance to hot cracking and significantly reduces grain size.
- Scandium is used as a catalyst in alkaline batteries.
- Don’t you know that scandium-aluminum alloys were first used by the Soviet military? The alloys were used in missiles and on MIG 29 fighters.
- Scandium impurities provide blue hues to many beryl types, also known as aquamarine gemstones.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Is scandium harmful to humans?
In a working environment, scandium can pose a danger. That is why those people working in the industry that uses scandium must wear protective gear. Inhalation of air with scandium can lead to lung embolism, especially in cases of people with chronic exposure to scandium. Once it accumulates in the human body, it can severely affect the liver.
Q2. Why is scandium expensive?
Scandium is one of the scarce chemical elements. The reason why scandium is expensive is that it is scarce and produced in limited supply.
Q3. Is scandium considered a precious metal?
Due to the scarcity of scandium, it is safe to say that it is a precious metal. Its limited availability of ores and is safe to say that it is a precious metal. Its limited availability of ores and concentration are enough to make mining scandium a worthwhile activity.
Q4. Can scandium be welded?
Yes. It has the ability to reduce hot cracking in welds, and it’s because of scandium’s fine grain refinement property. It increases the strength of the welds.
Q5. How can you recover scandium?
Scandium can be recovered as a by-product from tailings, residues, and waste liquors in making other metals like tungsten, titanium, nickel, niobium, tantalum, and aluminium.
References
- https://study.com/academy/lesson/scandium-facts-uses.html
- https://www.livescience.com/29071-scandium.html
- https://sciencenotes.org/scandium-facts/
- https://www.chemicool.com/elements/scandium.html
- https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/21/scandium
- https://www.britannica.com/science/scandium
- https://www.coolkidfacts.com/scandium-facts/
- https://www.thoughtco.com/scandium-facts-sc-or-element-21-606592
- https://www.softschools.com/facts/periodic_table/scandium_facts/192/
- https://www.vedantu.com/chemistry/scandium