Crossword clues for thulium
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Thulium \Thu"li*um\, n. [NL. See Thule.] (Chem.) A rare metallic element of uncertain properties and identity, said to have been found in the mineral gadolinite.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1879, Modern Latin, from thulia (thulite), name of an earth found in Scandinavia, from which the element was identified in 1879 by Swedish geologist Per Tedor Cleve (1840-1905), from Thule, which sometimes was identified as Scandinavia.
Wiktionary
n. A metallic chemical element (''symbol'' Tm) with an atomic number of 69.
WordNet
n. a soft silvery metallic element of the rare earth group; isotope 170 emits X-rays and is used in small portable X-ray machines; it occurs in monazite and apatite and xenotime [syn: Tm, atomic number 69]
Wikipedia
Thulium is a chemical element with symbol Tm and atomic number 69. It is the thirteenth and antepenultimate (third-last) element in the lanthanide series. Like the other lanthanides, the most common oxidation state is +3, seen in its oxide, halides and other compounds. In aqueous solution, like compounds of other late lanthanides, soluble thulium compounds form complexes with nine water molecules.
In 1879, Swedish chemist Per Theodor Cleve separated in the rare earth erbia another two previously unknown components, which he called holmia and thulia: these were the oxides of holmium and thulium respectively. A relatively pure sample of thulium metal was first obtained in 1911.
Thulium is the second least abundant of the lanthanides after promethium, which is only found in trace quantities on Earth. It is an easily workable metal with a bright silvery-gray luster. It is fairly soft and slowly tarnishes in air. Despite its high price and rarity, thulium is used as the radiation source in portable X-ray devices and in solid-state lasers. It has no significant biological role and is not particularly toxic.
Usage examples of "thulium".
So we mine monazite, which contains enough thulium for ion-exchange techniques to make it practical to extract.
That same morning, as all the experts and high officials of the secret police shook their heads, bleary-eyed after a sleepless night, the constructors asked for quartz, vanadium, steel, copper, platinum, rhinestones, dysprosium, yttrium and thulium, also cerium and germanium, and most of the other elements that make up the Universe, plus a variety of machines and qualified technicians, not to mention a wide as sortment of spies--for so insolent had the constructors become, that on the triplicate requisition form they boldly wrote: "Also, kindly send agents of various cuts and stripes at the discretion and with the approval of the Proper Authorities.
Kane noticed she seemed too shocked to speak, even though he was sure her father had told her about what befell Cerberus and most of its personnel on the day the combined forces of Barons Cobalt, Samarium, Thulia and Mande had all converged on the mountain plateau.