Chemical Symbol -- Sc
Group IIIB -- A first row transition element
Discovered by Lars Fredrik Nilson in 1879, eight years after Mendeleyev predicted it's existence, using the periodic table. This discovery led to the widespread acceptance of the periodic table. Lars named it after his homeland, Scandinavia.

Scandium has a high melting point and a resistance to to corrosion. Because of this it is of interest to aerospace industry.

Scandium forms very few useful compounds, but is used in lamps to make the color of the light closer to that of sunlight. These lamps are often used to light football and baseball stadiums. Scandium-46 is also used as a tracer in the refining of petroleum.

Scandium
Symbol: Sc
Atomic Number: 21
Boiling Point: 3109 K
Melting Point: 1814 K
Density at 300K: 2.99 g/cm3
Covalent radius: 1.44
Atomic radius: 2.09
Atomic volume: 15.0 cm3/mol
First ionization potental: 6.54 V
Specific heat capacity: 0.568 Jg-1K-1
Thermal conductivity: 15.8 Wm-1K-1
Electrical conductivity: 1.5 106Ω-1m-1
Heat of fusion: 16.11 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization: 304.80 kJ/mol
Electronegativity: 1.36 (Pauling's)

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To the Periodic Table

Although scandium forms very few useful compounds, it is very useful when alloyed with aluminum. Scandium alloys were first used by the Soviet Union in the '70s to make fins for rockets strong enough to be fired through the arctic ice sheet, a feat which the many Americans had thought impossible. Because the only major scandium mine in the world is located in Ukraine scandium was solely used by the Soviet military until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Today scandium is used by the military and aerospace industry, and is also used for sporting goods by Easton. Easton started experimenting with scandium aluminum alloys in 1996, and in 1997 started selling its first scandium product, a baseball bat. In 1999 the worlds first scandium aluminum bike came onto the market and scandium alloys are now used on many high-end (more than $3000) bicycles. Scandium tubing is useful as a frame material because of its light weight, resistance to corrosion, and unique grain properties, which allow it to be stiff in some places and pliant in others, making for a more comfortable bike.

Scan"di*um (?), n. [NL. So called because found in Scandinavian minerals] Chem.

A rare metallic element of the boron group, whose existence was predicated under the provisional name ekaboron by means of the periodic law, and subsequently discovered by spectrum analysis in certain rare Scandinavian minerals (euxenite and gadolinite). It has not yet been isolated. Symbol Sc. Atomic weight 44

<-- Atomic weight 44.96, at. no. 21; valence 3. -->

 

© Webster 1913.

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