Chemical
Z | Element | Electron configuration |
---|---|---|
21 | scandium | 2, 8, 9, 2 |
39 | yttrium | 2, 8, 18, 9, 2 |
71 | lutetium | 2, 8, 18, 32, 9, 2 |
103 | lawrencium | 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 8, 3 |
Like other groups, the members of this family show patterns in their electron configurations, especially the outermost shells, resulting in trends in chemical behavior. However, lawrencium is an exception, since its last electron is transferred to the 7p1/2 subshell due to relativistic effects.
Most of the chemistry has been observed only for the first three members of the group; chemical properties of both actinium and especially lawrencium are not well-characterized. The remaining elements of the group (scandium, yttrium, lutetium) are reactive metals with high melting points (1541 °C, 1526 °C, 1652 °C respectively). They are usually oxidized to the +3 oxidation state, even through scandium, yttrium and lanthanum can form lower oxidation states. The reactivity of the elements, especially yttrium, is not always obvious due to the formation of a stable oxide layer, which prevents further reactions. Scandium(III) oxide, yttrium(III) oxide, lanthanum(III) oxide and lutetium(III) oxide are white high-temperature-melting solids. Yttrium(III) oxide and lutetium(III) oxide exhibit weak basic character, but scandium(III) oxide is amphoteric. Lanthanum(III) oxide is strongly basic.
Read more about this topic: Group 3 Element, Characteristics
Famous quotes containing the word chemical:
“We are close to dead. There are faces and bodies like gorged maggots on the dance floor, on the highway, in the city, in the stadium; they are a host of chemical machines who swallow the product of chemical factories, aspirin, preservatives, stimulant, relaxant, and breathe out their chemical wastes into a polluted air. The sense of a long last night over civilization is back again.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“If Thought is capable of being classed with Electricity, or Will with chemical affinity, as a mode of motion, it seems necessary to fall at once under the second law of thermodynamics as one of the energies which most easily degrades itself, and, if not carefully guarded, returns bodily to the cheaper form called Heat. Of all possible theories, this is likely to prove the most fatal to Professors of History.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)
“We do not want actions, but men; not a chemical drop of water, but rain; the spirit that sheds and showers actions, countless, endless actions.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)