Samarium Uses

Member of the lanthanide series, Samarium is a metal with a bright silver color. The atomic number of samarium is 62, while its symbol is 'Sm'. This chemical element got its name from a compound called samarskite. The mineral, samarskite was named after a mining official from Russia known as Colonel Samarskia. This metal cannot be found in nature in its free form. Different compounds in which samarium is found in nature include bastnasite, monazite and samarskite. There are many uses of samarium and one can find its applications in the industries, for medical purpose, etc. Few of the samarium uses are enlisted below.

What is Samarium Used For?

There are many applications of Samarium. It is used in making alloys, pain killer medicines, etc. Compounds created from samarium are also used as catalysts. These and many other uses of samarium make this rare element to be important. Following are some of the uses.

Alloys: A rare kind of earth magnet, the samarium-cobalt magnet is made from samarium. Developed in the 1970s, this is a permanent magnet. Samarium-cobalt magnets are amongst the strongest and second only to neodymium magnets. This magnet is therefore, known to have great resistance to the process of demagnetization. The SmCo5 (samarium-cobalt) magnet is used in computer memories.

Carbon-arc Lamps: The oxide of samarium known as samaria is used in making carbon-arc lamps. The electrodes used to make these lamps contain samarium. Carbon-arc lamps are used for the purpose of lighting at studios. This element is also used in projector lights. A metal called Misch contains samarium as its component. One percent of samarium is present in this metal. Misch is used to make flints that are required in lighters.

Medicinal Use: Treatment of severe pain that one has to experience while suffering from cancer is possible with samarium. Radioactive samarium-153 is used for this purpose. The drug which is prepared with this radioactive samarium 153 is known as Quadramet.

Optical Glass: The element, samarium is one of the materials used in making optical glass. It helps in absorbing infrared light. This element is used in the form of samarium oxide for making the optical glass.

Ethanol Treatment: Samarium functions as a catalyst in few of the chemical reactions. These chemical processes include the dehydrogenation and dehydration of ethanol.

Barbier Reaction: The organic synthesis process called Barbier reaction also makes use of samarium. In this reaction, the chemical reagent, samarium oxide is used.

Sensitizers: The samarium element is used as a sensitizer for phosphors. The phosphors are present in the infrared. Phosphors possess the property of luminescence.

Nuclear Reactor: Samarium finds application in nuclear reactors. In the nuclear reactors, the element is used for the purpose of absorbing neutrons.

Lasers and Optical Masers: The process of doping of CaF2 crystals is carried out with the help of samarium.

Samarium Facts

The common uses of samarium presented above, should help us understand about the importance of this element. Let us have a look at few more samarium facts through the following paragraph.

• Discovery of samarium took place in the year 1853. Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, a Swiss chemist is credited with the discovery of this element.
• Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets was the person after whom samarskite (mineral in which samarium is found) was named.
• Samarium belongs to the sixth period of the periodic table and it is one of the inner transition metals.
• The element, Samarium is known to ignite at a temperature of 150°C. At room temperature however, samarium remains stable.

The different uses of samarium and information about its basic properties should help obtain facts about this element. The samarium uses presented in this article should help understand more about the element in a better manner.