Lanthanum

History

Lanthanum was discovered in 1826 by Charles Mosander. It is named from the Greek “hiding”, “ forget”. He received it by heating lanthanum chloride with potassium. At first, he was recognized as a bivalent, but then Mendeleev conducting its tests found that the trivalent element.

Nowadays

Modern technologies allow to receive lanthanum 99% purity, but  it is hard to separate the lanthanum from lanthanide and very expensive. Usually use the so-called mishmetall: lanthanide compound. Lanthanum is used in the chemical industry, as an extraagent. In most cases lanthanum oxide the use of. It is added in the glass, which gives them valuable optical properties, temperature and acid-proof.