Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58.
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20 Facts About Cerium
2.
Cerium is a soft, ductile, and silvery-white metal that tarnishes when exposed to air.
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3.
Cerium is the second element in the lanthanide series, and while it often shows the +3 oxidation state characteristic of the series, it has a stable +4 state that does not oxidize water.
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4.
Cerium has no known biological role in humans but is not particularly toxic, except with intense or continued exposure.
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5.
Cerium was the first of the lanthanides to be discovered, in Bastnas, Sweden, by Jons Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger in 1803, and independently by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in Germany in the same year.
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6.
Cerium metal is used in ferrocerium lighters for its pyrophoric properties.
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7.
Cerium-doped YAG phosphor is used in conjunction with blue light-emitting diodes to produce white light in most commercial white LED light sources.
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8.
Cerium is the only lanthanide which has important aqueous and coordination chemistry in the +4 oxidation state.
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9.
Cerium oxide has the fluorite structure, similarly to the dioxides of praseodymium and terbium.
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10.
Cerium was discovered in Bastnas in Sweden by Jons Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger, and independently in Germany by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, both in 1803.
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11.
Cerium was named by Berzelius after the asteroid Ceres, discovered two years earlier.
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12.
Cerium was originally isolated in the form of its oxide, which was named ceria, a term that is still used.
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13.
Cerium owned and controlled the mine at Bastnas, and had been trying for years to find out the composition of the abundant heavy gangue rock, now known as cerite, that he had in his mine.
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14.
Cerium occurs in various minerals, but the most important commercial sources are the minerals of the monazite and bastnasite groups, where it makes up about half of the lanthanide content.
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15.
Cerium is the easiest lanthanide to extract from its minerals because it is the only one that can reach a stable +4 oxidation state in aqueous solution.
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16.
Cerium is an essential component as a dopant for phosphors used in CRT TV screens, fluorescent lamps, and later white light-emitting diodes.
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17.
Cerium is otherwise not known to have biological role in any other organisms, but is not very toxic either; it does not accumulate in the food chain to any appreciable extent.
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18.
Cerium nitrate is an effective topical antimicrobial treatment for third-degree burns, although large doses can lead to cerium poisoning and methemoglobinemia.
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19.
Cerium is not toxic when eaten, but animals injected with large doses of cerium have died due to cardiovascular collapse.
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20.
Cerium is more dangerous to aquatic organisms, on account of being damaging to cell membranes; this is an important risk because it is not very soluble in water, thus causing contamination of the environment.
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