| Discovery date | 1878 |
| Discovered by | Per Teodor Cleve at Uppsala, Sweden and independently by Marc Delafontaine and Louis Soret in Geneva, Switzerland |
| Origin of the name | The name is derived from the Latin name for Stockholm, 'Holmia'. |
| Allotropes |
|
Ho
Holmium
67
164.930
| Group | Lanthanides | Melting point | 1472°C, 2682°F, 1745 K |
| Period | 6 | Boiling point | 2700°C, 4892°F, 2973 K |
| Block | f | Density (g cm−3) | 8.80 |
| Atomic number | 67 | Relative atomic mass | 164.930 |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 165Ho |
| Electron configuration | [Xe] 4f116s2 | CAS number | 7440-60-0 |
| ChemSpider ID | 22424 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Image explanation
The image is based upon the civic coat of arms of Stockholm, the city that gives the element its name.
Appearance
A bright, silvery metal.
Uses
Holmium can absorb neutrons, so it is used in nuclear reactors to keep a chain reaction under control. Its alloys are used in some magnets.
Biological role
Holmium has no known biological role, and is non-toxic.
Natural abundance
Holmium is found as a minor component of the minerals monazite and bastnaesite. It is extracted from those ores that are processed to extract yttrium. It is obtained by ion exchange and solvent extraction.
Holmium was discovered at Geneva in 1878 by Marc Delafontaine and Louis Soret, and independently by Per Teodor Cleve at Uppsala, Sweden. Both teams were investigating yttrium, which was contaminated with traces of other rare earths (aka lanthanoids) and had already yielded erbium which was later to yield ytterbium. Cleve looked more closely at what remained after the ytterbium had been removed, and realised it must contain yet other elements because he found that its atomic weight depended on its source. He separated holmium from erbium in 1878. Delafontaine and Soret also extracted it from the same source, having seen unexplained lines in the atomic spectrum. We cannot be certain that either group had produced a pure sample of the new element because yet another rare-earth, dysprosium, was to be extracted from holmium.
| Atomic radius, non-bonded (Å) | 2.30 | Covalent radius (Å) | 1.79 |
| Electron affinity (kJ mol−1) | Unknown |
Electronegativity (Pauling scale) |
1.23 |
|
Ionisation energies (kJ mol−1) |
1st
580.987
2nd
1138.5
3rd
2203.73
4th
4100.6
5th
-
6th
-
7th
-
8th
-
|
||
| Common oxidation states | 3 | ||||
| Isotopes | Isotope | Atomic mass | Natural abundance (%) | Half life | Mode of decay |
| 165Ho | 164.930 | 100 | - | - | |
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Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1) |
165 | Young's modulus (GPa) | 64.8 | |||||||||||
| Shear modulus (GPa) | 26.3 | Bulk modulus (GPa) | 40.2 | |||||||||||
| Vapour pressure | ||||||||||||||
| Temperature (K) |
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| Pressure (Pa) |
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| Listen to Holmium Podcast |
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Transcript :
Chemistry in its element: holmium(Promo) You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. (End promo) Meera Senthilingam This week, mythical monopoles that could lead us into another dimension. Hayley Birch In 1949, Milton Smith published a short work of fiction that he entitled The Mystery of Element 117. The real element 117 is yet to be discovered - it's a blank space in the Periodic Table just below the halogens. Smith's 117, however, was a strange material that could be used to open a window to another dimension. He called it a magnetic monopole substance - one that instead of having poles, plural, like an ordinary magnet, had a pole. Singular. Now, whilst no reputable scientist would argue that a magnetic monopole could open an inter-dimensional portal, its existence isn't outside the realms of possibility and if recent reports are anything to go by, it could depend on an otherwise mundane metallic element that you can find skulking around near the bottom of the Periodic Table - holmium. Despite having little else to shout about - bar a silvery sheen and a bit part in controlling nuclear reactions - holmium has some pretty fascinating magnetic properties. In fact, it has the strongest magnetic force of any element, albeit it as a paramagnet, which means it only becomes magnetic when it's sitting in an externally applied magnetic field. Perhaps most interesting are recent experiments that involved using holmium to try to find the mythical magnetic monopole. First though, let's create some context. As we know, the monopole has acquired the kind of fringe scientific status that makes it worthy of mention in science fiction circles - besides its appearance in Element 117, the author Larry Niven references monopoles in his 1973 novel Protector, where he imagines one of his characters mining shovelfuls of north poles from the rings of Saturn. But monopoles have also been the subject of much real scientific debate. The basis for their existence relies on work by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Paul Dirac. According to theories, singular magnetic charges - monopoles - must exist in order to adhere to the grand unified theory of physics; to mirror the singular electric charges of elementary particles. In 1982, a Stanford University physicist called Blas Cabrera thought he'd found one when, on Valentine's night, his "superconducting quantum interference detector" recorded a massive jump in the current fluctuations it was designed to monitor, indicating the existence of what he claimed to be a monopole. Cabrera and his troop of monopole hunters were given extra funding to build a bigger and better detector, but eventually abandoned their hunt in favour of a search for something similarly mysterious and just as elusive: dark matter. Monopoles are even talked about in the same breath as the ever elusive Higg's boson, with whisperings that CERN scientists could create them, along with black holes, in their experiments at the LHC. So last year, when French scientists claimed to have found magnetic components in holmium titanate crystals that behaved for all intents and purposes like monopoles, they sparked a minor media storm. The crystals contained tiny north and south pole points that were separated by less than a nanometre. Understandably, however, some scientists took issue with the use of the term "monopole" in this instance and argued that because that because one of these north points couldn't be created without the corresponding south point, the team hadn't found true monopoles. So that's about as glamorous and interesting as holmium gets - a minor role in a science fiction story and in a search that may, for all we know, end in nothing but disappointment. And as the 56th most abundant element, it's twenty times more common than silver and hardly deserving of its "rare earth metal" label. In fact, in oxide form, it's used to colour cubic zirconia, the synthetic material that's sold as a cheap substitute for real gemstones. It is also found in very, very small amounts in the body and affects metabolism in certain bacteria, but it doesn't seem to be essential and no one really knows what, exactly, it does. But perhaps I've been a bit harsh on poor old holmium, which, to be fair, doesn't get a whole lot of press. Because it does perform another useful task that's deserving of a mention. Some of the most cutting edge lasers used to treat certain cancers are solid-state lasers that require holmium to dope yttrium aluminium crystals. The lasers can be used to vaporise tumours with only minor tissue damage; a patient with early stage bladder cancer can be in and out of hospital in an afternoon without a general anaesthetic. So there you have it: mythical monopoles and vaporising lasers. Not bad for an element you barely even knew existed. Meera Senthilingam So the search for the monopole continues, but vaporising tumours with minimal tissue damage is definitely a noteworthy application of holmium. That was science writer Hayley Birch with the mythical chemistry of holmium. Now, staying on treatments for cancer next week's element also has a radiating way to kill cancer cells. Richard Corfield 225Ac can be used as the active agent Targeted Alpha Therapy, also known as TAT,a technique for inhibiting the growth of secondary cancers by direct irradiation with nuclear material. And so an element discovered in the same mineral - pitchblende - which kick-started the whole science of nuclear chemistry, today stands at the crossroads of one of the most challenging of all medical disciplines - finding a cure for cancer. Meera Senthilingam And Oxford's Richard Corfield will be revealing more uses for actinium as well as the origin of the actinides in next week's Chemistry in its element. Until then I'm Meera Senthilingam and thank you for listening. (Promo) Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists.com. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.org/elements. (End promo)
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Visual Elements images and videos
© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
Data
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
Uses and properties
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Supply risk data
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
History text
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Podcasts
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Periodic Table of Videos
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
