Rare-Earth Metal Long Term Air Exposure Test

This test was conducted to demonstrate the effects of air exposure of the rare -earth metals over time. Started
in January 2004, the test exposed samples of each of the 16 rare -earth metals (including scandium and
yttrium) to normal household air. The metal piec es were cut and polished to provide a shiny surface for
photographing. Over the test period, photos were taken of the sample set and are displayed below.

2 hours later...Europium starts to 2nd day: Lanthanum starts to turn Day 3: Praseodymium starts to turn
Start of study - Jan. 31, 2004 12 hours later...
tarnish dark color

Day 4: Europium shows yellow Day 7: Europium corrosion

Day 5: Cerium becomes dark Day 6 Day 8
corrosion accelerates
 Day 10: Europium corrosion Day 12: Lanthanum shows signs Day 16: Europium is covered
Day 9 Day 17
starts to stack up of spalling oxidation with corrosion

Day 22: Europium appears to be Day 32: Neodymium starts to

Day 18 Day 20 Day 25
completely corroded turn dark

Day 36: Europium corrosion Day 50: White lanthanum oxide Day 71: Cerium and Day 113: Thulium shows
Day 92
removed from test plate is clearly visible praseodymium show spalling noticeable loss of shine
 Day 586 (19 months): Cerium,
Day 132: Lanthanum corrosion Day 191: Praseodymium and Day 335: Lanthanum Day 391: Samarium starts to Praseodymium and Neodymium
accelerates neodymium show oxide colors completely corroded tarnish are almost gone, but most others
are still shiny

3 Years Later: Samarium has lost most

4 Years Later: Samarium is no
of its shine, but the others have not
longer shiny but the bulk of the
changed in over a year. The corroded
metal is still intact. No changes
metals have been removed. Terbium
observed on any other metal
and Lutetium samples were lost during
samples.
handling.

Why is this test being done? I t is known that some of these metals will corrode in air especially when moisture
is present. Europium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium and neodymium are known to corrode fairly quickly
and as a result are usually stored under argon or mineral oil to protect them. The uncertainty was how long
would it take, and would the other metals corrode also.
This test showed that these metals started to corrode in roughly the following order:

Europium (completely corroded after 22 days)

Lanthanum (completely corroded after about 11 months)
Cerium (completely corroded after about 1 year)
Praseodymium (completely corroded after about 1 year)
Neodymium (completely corroded after about 1 year)
Thulium
Samarium

Some observations:

When the e uropium and lanthanum started to corrode, they did so relatively slowly then after a while seemed
to accelerate. For the reactive metals (europium, lanthanum, praseodymium, cerium, neodymium) the oxide
"spalls" off which constantly exposes fresh metal, all owing the corrosion to continue unabated.

Europium lost its shine after about 2 hours.

Lanthanum turned blue within a few hours of the start of the test before turning a dark gray color.

Since the test was started in the winter season the air was probab ly quite dry for the first few months then
became humid during the summer months. The dryness may have delayed the corrosion rate for the first few
months.

The other metals not mentioned yet (scandium, yttrium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, er bium,
ytterbium, lutetium) appear as shiny after 1 year as they were at the start of the test.
For the Day 391 photo the europium corrosion product was placed back on the test plate. After this time the
corrosion product is now off -white in color. It coul d possibly have absorbed carbon dioxide to form the
carbonate.

Day 586: After over a year and a half, the stable rare -earths are still shiny, as shown in the Day 586 photo.
The cerium oxide seems to bind together in small plates, unlike the other oxides w hich form powders.

Three Years: After close to three years, most of the metals are still shiny. T he reactive metals are completely
gone and their reaction products were removed from the plate for this photo. Unfortunately for the experiment
the Lutetium and Terbium samples were lost during handling for the photo, but did still have their shine when
last observed. Samarium and thulium have shown very slow but clear signs of corrosion.

Four Years: After close to four years, the only noticeable difference was that samarium became a bit darker.
The other metals are either still shiny or in the same state they were the previous year.