描述
Scandium, also known as 21sc or escandio, is a member of the class of compounds known as homogeneous transition metal compounds. Homogeneous transition metal compounds are inorganic compounds containing only metal atoms,with the largest atom being a transition metal atom. Scandium can be found in a number of food items such as butternut, common hazelnut, coconut, and cashew nut, which makes scandium a potential biomarker for the consumption of these food products. Scandium is present in most of the deposits of rare-earth and uranium compounds, but it is extracted from these ores in only a few mines worldwide. Because of the low availability and the difficulties in the preparation of metallic scandium, which was first done in 1937, applications for scandium were not developed until the 1970s. The positive effects of scandium on aluminium alloys were discovered in the 1970s, and its use in such alloys remains its only major application. The global trade of scandium oxide is about 10 tonnes per year .