All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 71, a lanthanide
The last and densest of the lanthanides, named after Paris, and now a targeted cancer treatment.
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 Lu³⁺ ion in most of its compounds.
One of the rarest and most expensive rare earths, recovered from monazite and xenotime.
Georges Urbain in Paris, Carl Auer von Welsbach in Austria and Charles James in the United States each separated it from ytterbia around 1907. Urbain published first and named it after Lutetia, the Roman name for Paris.
Lutetium-177 is attached to molecules that seek out certain prostate and neuroendocrine cancers and destroys them with radiation from inside. Lutetium crystals detect gamma rays in PET scanners, lutetium catalysts help refine oil, and the slow decay of lutetium-176 dates meteorites and ancient rocks.