Introduction Lanthanum is a rare-earth element with a silvery-white appearance. It is represented as La and is number one on the lanthanide series. Lanthanum is described as the second most reactive element in the lanthanide series. Contrary to its classification as a rare-earth element, lanthanum is the 28th most abundant element. It is also the...Continue Reading

Overview of Holmium Holmium is a silvery-white rare-earth element commonly represented as Ho. This element is soft, malleable, and relatively volatile. Its name is derived from the Latin variant of Stockholm (Holmia). Jacques-Louis Soret and Marc Delafontaine are the two scientists credited for discovering Holmium. It was first discovered in 1878 and was first isolated by...Continue Reading

Gadolinium is a rare-earth metal commonly used in important applications like magnetic resonance imaging techniques and jewelry manufacture. It is commonly represented as Gd and has an atomic number 64. Since its discovery in 1880 by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, it wasn’t available in its pure form until Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran — a...Continue Reading

Europium is a chemical element that belongs to the Lanthanide series. This means it is a rare-earth element. It is distinct for being the most reactive, the rarest, the least dense, and the softest rare-earth element. It is so reactive that it is stored beneath a non-reactive fluid. Europium is named after Europe. Paul-Émile Lecoq...Continue Reading

Introduction Erbium is one of the 17 rare-earth elements. This means it also belongs to the lanthanide series. Its atomic number is 68, and its symbol is Er. When one is told that Erbium is a rare-earth metal, one might expect it to be challenging to come across. However, Erbium ranks number 45 in the...Continue Reading

Dysprosium is a rare-earth element with a lustrous and silvery appearance. Like most other rare-earth metals, it belongs to the Lanthanide series. Its name was derived from the Greek word dysprositos which can be translated as hard to get. Dysprosium was discovered in 1886 by a scientist known as Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. However,...Continue Reading

Arc Ion Plating is a technological process developed in the United States of America in the 60s. Since then, it has become more widely used and accepted in other parts of the world. Energy from evaporation as well as ionization is incorporated to achieve the goal of arc ion plating. The goal of arc ion...Continue Reading

Titanium nitride, also known as TiNite or TiN, is a chemical compound that is commonly used in coating objects. Titanium nitride thin film gives the coated object a gold color. It is widely used because it is less expensive than most other compounds with similar chemical properties. There are numerous commercial variants of titanium nitride, but...Continue Reading

White meals are an important category of metals used in various industrial applications, just as alloys are. An old use of white metals is their referencing in the antique trade for describing items suspected of containing silver but not hallmarked. As an example, the term “white metal” is used in the British fine art trade...Continue Reading