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Element 57, a lanthanide
The first of the lanthanides, the row of look-alike metals that takes its name, and a working part of many hybrid car batteries.
Period 6, in the lanthanide row set below the main table. The other lanthanides are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Like the other lanthanides, it gives up three electrons to form the La³⁺ ion in most of its compounds.
Found with the other rare earths in monazite and bastnäsite, mined mostly in China, the United States, Australia and Myanmar.
Carl Gustaf Mosander found it in 1839 hidden in cerium nitrate, which he had thought was pure. He named it from the Greek lanthanein, to lie hidden.
Nickel-metal hydride batteries in hybrid cars contain kilograms of a lanthanum-rich alloy. Lanthanum oxide makes high-quality camera and telescope lenses, lanthanum catalysts crack crude oil into gasoline, and lanthanum carbonate is a medicine that controls phosphate levels in kidney patients.