In the year of 1803, the element now known as ‘cerium’ was discovered in the island of Vastmanland, which is located in Sweden. The one who had obtained was Wilhelm Hilsinger. It wasn’t until the year of 1875 did William Hillebrand and Thomas Norton single out cerium chloride to solely cerium by passing the melted compound of cerium chloride through an electrical current. Cerium is located in the family of lanthanides, rare earth metals. Cerium in its pure form is considered silvery, and metallic grey in color. It is highly malleable and tarnishes easily. It’ll tarnish once it enters moisturized air. It is also considered a ductile element. Cerium’s surface may ignite if it is scraped ever so lightly with a knife. At a room temperature of 20 Celsius, cerium is in a solid form. Its melting point is at 799 Celsius, and has a boiling point of 3443 Celsius.
Cerium has the atomic number of 58. It is a metal. It has nine isotopes. Cerium is highly reactive, and tarnishes easily in the air. It burns readily to form cerium oxide. If you scratch cerium even slightly, it would ignite and burn. Cerium will dissolve in acid. It can oxidize quickly in hot water, and will oxidize slowly in water that is cold, to form cerium hydroxide. It is very active and must be used with caution. …show more content…
Though, it is the most abundant of the rare earth metals. It’s as abundant as copper, or even zinc. It’s equivalent to 0.0046% of the Earth’s crust. Cerium comes from lanthanide ores. It’s found in minerals; such as allanite, cerite, bastnasite, and monazite. Large deposits of these can be found in Brazil, India, and in the United States. To obtain purely cerium, scientists pass cerium chloride through an electrical current. Another way to extract cerium is by heating calcium metal with cerium fluoride. There is a production of cerium that amounts to 23 tonnes a