 Discovery Information |
| Who:
Paul emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran
|
| When: 1886 |
| Where: France |
|
| Name Origin |
| Greek: dysprositos (hard to get at). |
|
| Sources |
| Dysprosium is never encountered as the free element. Usually found with erbium, holmium and other rare earths in some minerals (euxenite, fergusonite, gadolinite and xenotime to name a few). |
|
| Uses |
| As control-rods for nuclear reactors because it readily absorbs neutrons. |
|
| Notes |
| It wasn't until the 1950s that the element was isolated in a relatively pure form. |
| As with the other
lanthanides
, dysprosium compounds are of low to moderate toxicity, although their toxicity has not been investigated in detail. Dysprosium does not have any known biological properties. |
