Samarium Metal
- CAS number
- 7440-19-9
- Molecular weight
- 150.35
- Molecular formula / chemical symbol
- Sm
Description
Samarium is a silvery-yellow lustrous metal that tarnishes in air. Samarium will ignite in air at about 150 °C. The metal is relatively hard and brittle. It has a rhombohedra structure, a density of 7.536 gm/cm3, a melting point of 1072 °C, and a boiling point of 1900 °C. Samarium oxide, or samaria, occurs as a sesquioxide with the formula Sm2O3. The trivalent oxide is a light-yellowish powder with a specific gravity of 7.1 gm/cm3 and a formula weight of 348.70. The bivalent oxide is red-brown. Samarium has 16 isotopes. Natural occurring samarium contains 7 isotopes, with 3 being unstable with long half-lives
USES
Samarium metal is typically prepared by metallothermic reduction of the oxide, since it will not reduce from the trihalide because of its high vapor pressure.
- High-strength samarium cobalt magnets allowed the miniaturization of hundreds of applications in the 1970s including cassette tape players, computer disk drives, headphones, boom boxes, and speakers.
- Fender manufacturers single coil noiseless (no background hum) guitar pickups using samarium cobalt magnets.
- Samarium X-ray lasers have applications in radiography