描述
Ytterbium, also known as 70yb or yterbio, is a member of the class of compounds known as homogeneous lanthanide compounds. Homogeneous lanthanide compounds are inorganic compounds containing only metal atoms, with the largest atom being a lanthanide atom. Ytterbium can be found in a number of food items such as corn, almond, white cabbage, and pistachio, which makes ytterbium a potential biomarker for the consumption of these food products. In 1878, the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac separated from the rare earth "erbia" another independent component, which he called "ytterbia", for Ytterby, the village in Sweden near where he found the new component of erbium. He suspected that ytterbia was a compound of a new element that he called "ytterbium" (in total, four elements were named after the village, the others being yttrium, terbium and erbium). In 1907, the new earth "lutecia" was separated from ytterbia, from which the element "lutecium" (now lutetium) was extracted by Georges Urbain, Carl Auer von Welsbach, and Charles James. After some discussion, Marignac's name "ytterbium" was retained. A relatively pure sample of the metal was not obtained until 1953. At present, ytterbium is mainly used as a dopant of stainless steel or active laser media, and less often as a gamma ray source .