HHomeBackground Color:He
LiBeLutetium Pictures PageBlack White GrayBCNOFNe
NaMgLutetium Technical DataAlSiPSClAr
KCaLutetium Isotope DataScTiVCrMnFeCoNiCuZnGaGeAsSeBrKr
RbSrYZrNbMoTcRuRhPdAgCdInSnSbTeIXe
CsBaLaCePrNdPmSmEuGdTbDyHoErTmYbLuHfTaWReOsIrPtAuHgTlPbBiPoAtRn
FrRaAcThPaUNpPuAmCmBkCfEsFmMdNoLrRfDbSgBhHsMtDsRgUubUutUuqUupUuhUusUuo
Lutetium     

Lutetium

Atomic Weight 174.967
Density 9.841 g/cc
Melting Point 1663.°C
Boiling Point 3402.°C
Full technical data

Lutetium has almost no applications. As a result it used to be the most expensive element in the world. These days it is easily available as a side product of other lanthanide production and its price has fallen.

Scroll down to see examples of Lutetium.
Periodic Table Poster   Click here to buy a photographic periodic table poster based on the images you see here, including a new lenticular 3D version!
Lutetium Element coin

Larger | Spin | 3D
Element coin.
Dave Hamric sells element samples under the name Metallium. He's developed a line of coins struck out of various common and uncommon metals: They are quite lovely, and very reasonably priced, considering the difficulty of creating some of them.
Here is the back side of this coin (click either picture to see it larger):

Click the Sample Group link below to see many other coins made of various elements, or click the link to his website above if you want to buy one like this.
Source: Dave Hamric
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 December, 2007
Price: $65
Size: 0.75"
Purity: >99%
Sample Group: Coins
Lutetium Cut off corner

Larger | Spin | 3D
Cut off corner.
This irregular lump was sawed off a large 500 gram piece (for lutetium, 500 grams is a lot) by Tim Worstall. Tim is the world's leading expert on the scandium and scandium oxide trade by virtue of the fact that he is about 60% of the world's scandium trade. (And some day I may actually have some scandium from him, but for convoluted reasons, at the moment I have a couple of other rare earths instead.)
In a bizarre twist that lends credence to the theory that there are really only a few thousand people in the world and it's all a whole lot smaller than it seems, the lump from which this piece was cut spent several years unknown to me sitting at a company just a couple of miles from where it is now, having been sold there by Tim. They eventually sent it back to him in Belgium where it sat for a while longer before it got sold to my friend Max Whitby who knew about it because I told him about the small piece that Tim sent from Belgium back to within a couple of miles where he'd sent the whole thing earlier.
The small piece traveled a couple miles down the road by way of Belgium, and the big piece went from Belgium to England because of a website operated out of east-central Illinois, not usually thought of as a hotbed of activity in the lutetium market.
Source: Tim Worstall
Contributor: Tim Worstall
Acquired: 2003-05-1
Price: Donated
Size: 1.2"
Purity: 99.9%
Lutetium Sample from the Everest Set

Larger
Sample from the Everest Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (except gasses) weigh about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.

Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%
Lutetium Lump

Larger | 3D
Lump.
David Franco told me that lutetium would be the last element I would find, and he was almost right. This sample arrived with a full set of lanthanides at a time when I was missing europium, terbium, holmium, ytterbium, and of course lutetium.

This very kind donation from Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company in England completed my element collection, to the extent that it gave me a plausible sample of every element one can plausibly have a sample of. (The Red Green & Blue Company is selling a periodic table collection containing similar samples of the same stuff, and if you want a ready-made collection of elements, that's the first place I would look.)

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.

The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples):


Source: Max Whitby of RGB
Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB
Acquired: 20 December, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 0.5"
Purity: 99.95%
Periodic Table Poster   Click here to buy a photographic periodic table poster based on the images you see here, including a new lenticular 3D version!