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Chemistry of Samarium

  • Page ID
    35414
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    Named for the mineral samarskite from which it is extracted, samarium was isolated and identified by de Boisbaudran is 1879. The pure metal has a silver lustre and tarnishes slowly at room conditions. It is readily magnetized and holds its magnetism extremely well. Rare earth magnets (samarium-cobalt, for example) exploit this property.

    Although it is present in samarskite, commercial production of samarium is from monazite sand which can contain as much as 2.8% Sm by weight.

    Contributors and Attributions

    Stephen R. Marsden


    Chemistry of Samarium is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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