Scandium Uses

Scandium is a transition metallic element that belongs to group IIIB of the periodic table. In chemistry, it is represented with chemical symbol Sc. Scandium was discovered by Swedish chemist Lars Fredrik Nilson in 1879. Nilson and his team detected scandium when they were working with some rare minerals Euxenite and Gadolinite which was brought from Scandinavia. Thus, the chemical element derived its name from the Latin word 'Scanda' which means Scandinavia.

Facts About Scandium

Scandium is a light metal and has a soft and smooth texture. Here are a few more interesting facts about this element:

• In its pure form, element scandium appears in silvery white color. On exposure to air, the whitish color of the metal gets a yellowish or pinkish tinge.
• The uniqueness of scandium lies with the fact that it has a low density but its melting point and boiling point are quite high. Its melting point is 1541 degrees Celsius and boiling point is 2830 degrees Celsius.
• The atomic number of scandium is 21. Like any other elements of group IIIB of the periodic table, the valence of scandium is 3. In other words, during a chemical reaction, when it combines with other elements scandium loses three of its electrons present in its outermost shell (or valence shell).
• In all, there are eleven recognized isotopes of scandium. Among them, naturally occurring scandium-45 is a stable isotope. The other 10 are radioactive isotopes with unstable nuclei.
• As far as the chemical properties of scandium is concerned, it is quite reactive in nature. On reaction with water, it produces hydrogen gas. Scandium readily reacts with a number of acids. At room temperature, it does not react with oxygen present in the air. However, when it is ignited, it burns readily in air.

Important Uses of Scandium

This element usage started only in the 1970s. This is mainly because this element was not easily available. No, it is not a rarely found element of the earth. In fact, there are more than 800 minerals in which scandium can be found. However, in most minerals it is found only in trace amounts. Moreover, it is always found in combined state. Therefore, extraction of the metal was a major problem.

One of the most important scandium uses is for preparing aluminum-scandium alloys which is used in aerospace industry for making aircraft. When it is added in trace amount (about 0.1% to 0.5%) to aluminum, it increases the strength of aluminum manifolds without increasing its weight. Its use in aerospace industry is restricted to specialized aircraft (like some Russian military aircraft MiG-21, MiG-29 etc.) only because of high cost of this element.

Another key use of this aluminum-scandium alloy is in the manufacturing of various sports equipment like baseball bats, lacrosse sticks and bikes. All these items have a common requirement: a high performance material which is light in weight, rust resistant and have high melting point. And scandium-aluminum alloy have all these qualities in it.

Commercially, scandium is used in large scale for making metal halide lamps. These lamps are actually a partially modified mercury vapor lamp in which a combination of scandium iodide and sodium iodide is added to get an effect of high intensity white light. The artificial light thus produced is quite similar to that of natural sunlight. These lamps are so much in demand that it is estimated that almost 80 kg of scandium is used every year, all over the world for production of these lamps.

Well-known American gun-making company Smith & Wesson uses scandium alloy for making frames of its revolvers. Scandium-46 is a radioactive isotope of the element which is used in oil refineries where it plays the role of a tracing agent. The compound scandium triflate acts as a catalyst in organic chemistry. Scandium can be used for polishing glass.

In general, elemental form of scandium is non-toxic. However, studies have found that some of its compounds could be carcinogenic in nature. Therefore, while working with scandium, it should be handled with care in order to avoid any exposure.