None of the elements in group 3 of the periodic table enjoy widespread application, but a few uses have been found. Scandium is a prohibitively expensive element but is used, nevertheless, as a seed-germinating agent, and scandium-46 is used as a radioactive tracer in oil refineries.
Yttrium oxide is used in the phosphors which give the red colour in television screens. Yttrium garnets are used as microwave filters.
Lanthanum is used in misch metal, an alloy of lanthanide metals which is pyrophoric and is employed in cigarette lighter flints. The element's oxide is used in special optical glasses.
Actinium is used as a neutron source, but the diffiuclty of preparing the element in large quantities makes widespread use impossible.
