What Makes Scandium Essential in Everyday Life?
Scandium is an element in the periodic table with the number 21 and the icon "Sc."
Scandium is taken from Scandinavia's precious minerals. Once it's out in the air, it turns a pale yellow or pinkish. Scandium also affects hydrogen gas and dissolves in chemicals.
Scandium metal is made by heating scandium fluoride (ScF3) with calcium material. one can find this unique chemical in things like goggles, energy-saving lamps, fluorescent lights, and TVs.
Scandium
Scandium has been evidenced to cut down on cracking when high-strength aluminium alloys are welded. Scandium is being used increasingly as an excellent catalyst to polish glass. Aluminum-scandium alloys are primarily used in the aviation industry and for athletic apparel (like baseball, bikes, and so on.)
Scandium is found in nature, but only in tiny amounts. It is the 50th most common element on Earth and is located in small quantities in more than 800 mineral deposits. The total amount made will only be 50 kg a year. When mixed with aluminium and aluminium-based metals, scandium would slow the growth of grains at high temperatures.
Characteristics and Properties of Scandium
Scandium is a smooth, silvery transition component found in precious minerals from Sweden. Once it's out in the air, it gets a slightly yellow or pink tint. Scandium turns black when exposed to air and burns quickly once it catches fire. It turns hydrogen gas into water and dissolves in many acids. When scandium fluoride and calcium metal are heated together, they turn into pure scandium.
There are many things about scandium that make it different from other elements. Here are some of the physical characteristics and properties of scandium:
It looks like a metal that is silvery white.
It's not too hard or too soft.
Scandium rusts when exposed to air and burns easily.
Water responds with scandium.
The metal's melting point is 1541oC, and its heat capacity is 2836oC. The density of scandium is 2.99 grams per cubic centimetre.
Where is Scandium Found on Earth?
Scandium on the Earth
If one considers where scandium is found on Earth, the answer is that it is not found in the environment by itself. Instead, it is found in tiny quantities in over 820 different minerals. The solely concentrated contributors are the rare raw materials, thortveitite, compliant, and gadolinite found in Scandinavia and Madagascar. In the business world, scandium is made when uranium is refined.
How is Scandium Used Today?
Scandium is mainly used in scientific research. It has potential because its density is nearly as low as aluminium’s, and its melting point is much greater. An aluminium-scandium alloy has been used in high-end bike frames, baseball bats, and Russian MIG jet fighters.
By adding scandium iodide to mercury vapour phase lamps, a very bright light source that looks like sunlight can be made. These lamps assist TV cameras in showing colours well when used indoors or in the early evening.
In refining oil, the chemical element scandium-46 serves as a tracer to track the motion of different fractions. It could also be used to find leaks in pipes that are buried.
Summary
Scandinavia is where Scandium got its name. Most of these minerals can be found in Scandinavia. Ytterbium, a component of scandium, was separated from euxenite and gadolinite by chemist Lars Nilson.
Scandium has the fewest atoms of any transition metal. It is generally guarded against other components and does not rust or break down when exposed. It looks and works like aluminium, except it keeps its shape and overall form even at extreme temperatures.
FAQs on Scandium: Key Concepts & Study Guide
1. What is Scandium and where is it located in the Periodic Table?
Scandium, with the symbol Sc, is a chemical element with atomic number 21. It is a silvery-white metallic d-block element. In the periodic table, it is located in Group 3 and Period 4, making it the first of the transition metals in the 4th period.
2. What is the ground-state electronic configuration of Scandium?
The ground-state electronic configuration of Scandium (Sc), which has 21 electrons, is 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 3d¹ 4s². This can be written in a shortened form as [Ar] 3d¹ 4s², where [Ar] represents the stable electron core of the noble gas Argon. The final electron enters the 3d orbital, classifying it as a d-block element.
3. What are the key physical and chemical properties of Scandium?
Scandium is a relatively soft, lightweight, silvery-white metal. Its key properties include:
Physical Properties: It has a relatively high melting point (1541 °C) for a light metal. It is almost as light as aluminium but is much stronger.
Chemical Properties: It tarnishes in the air, developing a slightly yellowish or pinkish cast upon oxidation. It reacts slowly with water and dissolves in dilute acids to produce hydrogen gas. It typically forms compounds in the +3 oxidation state.
4. What are the main uses and applications of Scandium?
Scandium is valued for its unique properties, leading to several high-tech applications. Its main uses are in:
Aluminium-Scandium Alloys: This is its most common application. Adding a small amount of Sc to aluminium creates extremely strong, lightweight, and corrosion-resistant alloys used in the aerospace industry (for fighter jets) and for high-performance sports equipment like baseball bats and bicycle frames.
High-Intensity Lighting: Scandium iodide is added to mercury-vapour lamps to produce a highly efficient light source that mimics natural sunlight.
Electronics and Tracers: It is used in some electronic devices and its radioactive isotope, ⁴⁶Sc, is used as a tracing agent in oil refineries.
5. Where is Scandium found in nature and how is it extracted?
Scandium is not found free in nature. It is a rare element distributed sparsely in various minerals, most notably in rare-earth ores like thortveitite, euxenite, and gadolinite, primarily found in Scandinavia and Madagascar. The extraction process is complex and expensive, typically involving the reduction of scandium fluoride (ScF₃) with metallic calcium.
6. Why does Scandium exclusively show a +3 oxidation state?
Scandium exclusively exhibits a +3 oxidation state because of its electronic structure ([Ar] 3d¹ 4s²). To form an ion, it loses its two outermost 4s electrons and its single 3d electron. By losing these three electrons, it achieves the highly stable electronic configuration of the noble gas Argon ([Ar]). The energy required to remove a fourth electron from the stable 3p⁶ core is prohibitively high, making any oxidation state other than +3 extremely unstable.
7. Why is Scandium considered a transition element if its common ion (Sc³⁺) has no d-electrons?
Scandium is classified as a transition element based on the definition that an element must have an incompletely filled d-orbital in its ground-state atom or in any of its common oxidation states. The Scandium atom has the configuration [Ar] 3d¹, which is an incomplete d-orbital, thus fulfilling the condition. Although its only stable ion, Sc³⁺, has an empty d-orbital (3d⁰), the property of the neutral atom is sufficient to place it within the transition metal series.
8. How does the chemistry of Scandium compare to non-transition metals like Calcium?
Although Scandium (atomic number 21) directly follows Calcium (atomic number 20) in the periodic table, their chemistry differs significantly. Calcium is an alkaline earth metal that forms a +2 ion (Ca²⁺) and highly ionic compounds. In contrast, Scandium is a transition metal that forms a +3 ion (Sc³⁺). Due to its smaller size and higher charge, the Sc³⁺ ion has a greater charge density, leading to more covalent character in its bonds compared to the purely ionic nature of calcium compounds.
9. What makes Scandium-aluminium alloys so valuable for the aerospace industry?
Scandium-aluminium (Al-Sc) alloys are highly valued in aerospace for a unique combination of properties that standard aluminium alloys cannot match. The addition of even a small percentage of scandium to aluminium:
Increases Strength: It significantly enhances the strength and durability of the alloy.
Improves Weldability: It makes the alloy easier to weld without cracking, which is crucial for manufacturing complex structures like aircraft frames.
Maintains Low Density: It achieves these improvements without significantly increasing the weight, which is a primary concern in aerospace engineering for fuel efficiency and performance.
