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Xenotime: Characteristics, Origin and Applications

Learn more about the mineral called xenotime - its characteristics, history, and uses and applications. Xenotime belongs to the family of phosphate minerals that contain rare earth metals. It has a chemical formula of YPO4 (yttrium orthophosphate). Xenotime contains high levels of yttrium, as well as other rare earth metals such as ytterbium and erbium which replace yttrium in the mineral’s main chemical composition.

Learn more about the mineral called xenotime - its characteristics, history, and uses and applications. Xenotime belongs to the family of phosphate minerals that contain rare earth metals. It has achemical formula of YPO4 (yttrium orthophosphate). Xenotime contains high levels of yttrium,as well as other rare earth metals such as ytterbium and erbium which replace yttrium in themineral’s main chemical composition.

Characteristics

Typically brown, brownish yellow, or gray, xenotime is a mineral known for its streaks of palebrown, yellowish brown, reddish brown, and white. It has a Mohs hardness scale of 4.5 whichmeans it’s a relatively soft and brittle mineral. Mineralogists describe it as having a vitreous toresinous luster. Xenotime crystals also range in appearance from translucent to opaque.Xenotime contains high levels of yttrium which make up its major composition: yttriumorthophosphate. Other specimens of xenotime have other rare earth metals in the place ofyttrium. These alternate metals include dysprosium, erbium, terbium, and ytterbium.Other metal elements also appear as secondary components of xenotime. These are mainlythorium and uranium. Impurities such as trace amounts of uranium and thorium lead toxenotime’s being radioactive, although xenotime alone is neither radioactive nor luminescent.Xenotime also occurs as a minor accessory mineral found in specimens of igneous rocks such aspegmatites, and gneisses that also contain high levels of quartz and mica.

Origin and History

It was in 1832 in Vest-Agder, Norway that xenotime was first discovered and described. Its namederives from the Greek word for “vain”, while the suffix “–time” comes from the Greek word forhonor; this suffix is believed to be added due to the mineral’s yttrium content which discoverersfirst thought to be a newly discovered element.After its discovery in Norway, several sources of xenotime were found in Brazil in SouthAmerica (where five different mines yielded, and continue to yield, large deposits of themineral); Madagascar in Africa; and Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, and California in theUnited States.

Uses and Applications

There are two major uses for xenotime. Due to its high yttrium content, it is tapped as a majorsource of such. Yttrium, in turn, is used for creating yttrium-aluminum garnet lasers and yttriumiron garnet microwave filters. It is also a chief source of heavy lanthanide metals such asdysprosium which is used in lasers and creation of rare earth magnets; erbium, a rare earth metalused in lasers as well as in the creation of vanadium steel; gadolinium, another rare earth metalwhich appears as a major component in various technological applications such as highrefractive glass, rare earth magnets, and lasers, and as an MRI contrasting agent and an NMRrelaxation agent; and ytterbium, a primary component in the manufacture of infrared lasers aswell as an ingredient in chemical reducing agents.Xenotime is also tapped as a gemstone. Fine crystals of xenotime are carefully cut to createbrownish yellow gemstones. However, xenotime’s relative softness (4.5 in the Mohs scale ofhardness) make it a challenging crystal to work with.

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Article Tags: Rare Earth Metals, Rare Earth, Earth Metals

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