Here’s how it works. Ytterbium has a bright silvery luster, is soft, malleable, and quite ductile. One of the lanthanides, it is fairly stable in air but is readily attacked and dissolved by ...

Erbium metal is malleable and soft in its pure form and has a bright silvery, metallic sheen. Just like most of the rare-earth metals, erbium’s properties differ based on the amount of impurities ...

Discovery: In 1842, Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander separated the "yttria" component found in the mineral gadolinite into three segments that he called yttria, erbia and terbia. As might be ...