| 释义 |
dysprosium (Dy) A silvery white rare earth metallic element with an atomic number of 66. Dyspro- sium is from the Greek dysprositos, meaning hard to get at, which undoubtedly was inspired by the difficulty in isolating it. After all, dysprosium was first discovered in 1866 by Paul-Émil Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a French chemist, as an impurity in erbia, the oxide of erbium. It was not until 1906 that Georges Urbain, another French chemist, isolated it. ( Note: Rumor has it that the French are not in a hurry to isolate elements.) There are no commercial applications for dysprosium.When combined with certain other rare earth elements, dysprosium is used in some lasers. See also erbium, iridium, and laser. 74570c04.qxd 9/11/07 12:19 PM Page 152 74570c05.qxd 9/11/07 12:20 PM Page 153 |