All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 70, a lanthanide
The fourth element named after Ytterby, and the heart of some of the most precise clocks ever built.
Period 6, in the lanthanide row set below the main table. The other lanthanides are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Ytterbium has 70 electrons, one for every proton, so the atom carries no charge. Below are the same 70 electrons written two ways.
1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 3d¹⁰ 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴ 5s² 5p⁶ 6s²
Short form: [Xe] 4f¹⁴ 6s², where [Xe] stands for the 54 electrons xenon already has.
That list runs by shell. In the order the subshells fill it reads [Xe] 6s² 4f¹⁴, because a subshell fills by its energy, not by its shell number.
The simple form counts electrons shell by shell. The orbital form says which subshell each one sits in: s holds 2, p holds 6, d holds 10 and f holds 14. Shell 4 here is 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴, and 2 + 6 + 10 + 14 is 32.
Ytterbium sits in period 6 and has 6 shells. The period number counts the shells.
The outer shell holds 2 electrons. Those are the ones ytterbium can lose, gain or share, so they are the ones that decide what it bonds with.
Like the other lanthanides, it gives up three electrons to form the Yb³⁺ ion in most of its compounds.
Found in xenotime, monazite and ion-adsorption clays, mostly in China.
Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac separated a new earth, ytterbia, from erbium oxide in 1878 and named it after Ytterby. In 1907 chemists showed that ytterbia itself hid a second element, lutetium.
Ytterbium-doped fiber lasers cut and weld metal in factories, ytterbium lattice clocks are among the most precise timekeepers ever built, and ytterbium strengthens some stainless steels. Its electrical resistance changes under pressure, so it goes into gauges that measure the stress from earthquakes and explosions.