Dysprosium ( ) is a chemical element with the symbol Dy and atomic number 66.

Dysprosium is never found in nature as a free element, though it is found in various minerals, such as xenotime.

Dysprosium is used for its high thermal neutron absorption cross-section in making control rods in nuclear reactors, for its high magnetic susceptibility in data storage applications, and as a component of Terfenol-D. Soluble dysprosium salts are mildly toxic, while the insoluble salts are considered non-toxic.

Dysprosium is a rare earth element that has a metallic, bright silver luster.

Dysprosium is quite electropositive and reacts slowly with cold water and quite quickly with hot water to form dysprosium hydroxide:

Dysprosium oxide, also known as dysprosia, is a white powder that is highly magnetic, more so than iron oxide.

Dysprosium is never encountered as a free element, but is found in many minerals, including xenotime, fergusonite, gadolinite, euxenite, polycrase, blomstrandine, monazite and bastnäsite ; often with erbium and holmium or other rare earth elements.

Dysprosium is obtained primarily from monazite sand, a mixture of various phosphates.

Dysprosium is used, in conjunction with vanadium and other elements, in making laser materials and commercial lighting.

Dysprosium is used in dosimeters for measuring ionizing radiation.

Dysprosium nitrate, Dy ( NO < sub > 3 </ sub >)< sub > 3 </ sub >, is a strong oxidizing agent and will readily ignite upon contact with organic substances.

Dysprosium titanate is a new material currently undergoing evaluation for pressurized water control rods.

Dysprosium titanate is a promising replacement for Ag-In-Cd alloys because it has a much higher melting point, does not tend to react with cladding materials, is easy to produce, does not produce radioactive waste, does not swell, and does not outgas.

Dysprosium is usually the most abundant of the even numbered heavies, and holmium is the most abundant of the odd numbered heavies.

Dysprosium metal vigorously reacts with all the halogens at above 200 ° C:

Dysprosium combines with various non-metals at high temperatures to form binary compounds with varying composition and oxidation states + 3 and sometimes + 2, such as DyN, DyP, DyH < sub > 2 </ sub > and DyH < sub > 3 </ sub >; DyS, DyS < sub > 2 </ sub >, Dy < sub > 2 </ sub > S < sub > 3 </ sub > and Dy < sub > 5 </ sub > S < sub > 7 </ sub >; DyB < sub > 2 </ sub >, DyB < sub > 4 </ sub >, DyB < sub > 6 </ sub > and DyB < sub > 12 </ sub >, as well as Dy < sub > 3 </ sub > C and Dy < sub > 2 </ sub > C < sub > 3 </ sub >.

About 100 tonnes of dysprosium are produced worldwide each year, with 99 % of that total produced in China Dysprosium prices have climbed nearly twentyfold, from $ 7 per pound in 2003, to $ 130 a pound in late 2010.

Dysprosium chloride fires, however, can be extinguished with water, while dysprosium fluoride and dysprosium oxide are non-flammable.

Dysprosium was first identified in 1886 by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, but was not isolated in pure form until the development of ion exchange techniques in the 1950s.

Dysprosium and holmium have the highest magnetic strengths of the elements, especially at low temperatures.

Dysprosium has a simple ferromagnetic ordering at temperatures below.

Dysprosium halides, such as DyF < sub > 3 </ sub > and DyBr < sub > 3 </ sub >, tend to take on a yellow color.

Dysprosium carbonate, Dy < sub > 2 </ sub >( CO < sub > 3 </ sub >)< sub > 3 </ sub >, and dysprosium sulfate, Dy < sub > 2 </ sub >( SO < sub > 4 </ sub >)< sub > 3 </ sub >, result from similar reactions.

Dysprosium also has at least 11 metastable isomers, ranging in atomic mass from 140 to 165.

Dysprosium can then be separated from other rare earth metals by an ion exchange displacement process.

Dysprosium iodide and dysprosium bromide are used in high intensity lighting.

Dysprosium fires cannot be put out by water.

* WebElements. com – Dysprosium

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