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WHAT ARE THE USES OF RARE EARTH METALS?

Rare Earth metals, including Yttirium, have a variety of uses in the technological sector. 

Most of their applications focus around building and developing high-end tech. 

Yttirium - This metallic element is named after a Swedish town (Ytterby) where it was first discovered in the 18th Century.  

Yttrium oxide accounts for the element's largest use. 

The oxide, as well as yttrium vanadate is used with europium to make phosphors to create the red colour in television tubes.

It is used in lasers that can cut through metals and and in white LED lights.

Yttrium oxide is added to the glass used to make camera lenses to make them heat and shock resistant. It is also used to make superconductors.  

Europium - Named after the continent on which it was discovered _Europe - this element has specialised uses.

As well as also being used in the production of the red colour in televisions, it can be used to create quantum memory chips to store information. 

Europium is also used in the printing of euro banknotes. It glows red under UV light, and forgeries can be detected by the lack of this red glow.

Low-energy light bulbs contain a little europium to give a more natural light, by balancing the blue (cold) light with a little red (warm) light.

Terbium - This element was also discovered in the Swedish quarry in Ytterby. 

An alloy of terbium, dysprosium and iron lengthens and shortens in a magnetic field. 

This unusual property forms the basis of loudspeakers that sit on a flat surface, such as a window pane, which then acts as the speaker.

Dysprosium -  Dysprosium is also used in nuclear reactor control rods. 

It readily absorbs neutrons, and does not swell or contract when bombarded with neutrons for long periods. 

At high temperatures, dysprosium resists demagnetisation.

Demagnetisation is the process of removing magnetic characteristics from an object. 

This makes its alloys ideal for use in permanent magnets for motors, electric vehicles, generators, and wind turbines. 

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