Thulium is a rare earth metal with industrial applications, but is not widely used due to its low abundance. It is difficult to isolate and mostly mined in China. Thulium is used in lasers, optical glasses, arc lighting, and nuclear research. It is toxic and has no known biological purpose.
Thulium is a metallic chemical element in the lanthanide group on the periodic table of elements. Lanthanides are also known as rare earth metals, referring to a now obsolete term for these elements with many shared chemical and physical properties. Thulium is not widely used, as it is the least abundant of the lanthanide elements, although it has some industrial applications. Most of the current world supply of thulium comes from mines and refineries in China.
This element can be extremely difficult to isolate due to its relatively low abundance. Most thulium is mined from minerals such as monazite, gadolinite and euxenite. In its pure form, thulium is silvery in color and very shiny. It is also extremely soft and easy to work with. The item will oxidize when exposed to air, so many people like to keep it in airtight containers or mineral oil to avoid this. The element is identified with the symbol TM on the periodic table and has an atomic number of 69, making it one of the heaviest lanthanides.
The discovery of this element is usually credited to Per Teodor Cleve, who discovered a thulium oxide in 1879 while searching for new elements. In 1911, a British researcher managed to get enough thulium to actually isolate and observe it; before them, chemists had not been able to research the element extensively since they had such small fractions to work with. The element got its name from ancient Scandinavia, which was once known as Thule.
Like other lanthanides, thulium can be used as a dopant for lasers and specialty optical glasses. The element is also used in arc lighting and nuclear research. An isotope of thulium can be used in portable X-ray machines, and the element’s compounds and salts have few other industrial applications. Because the element is somewhat difficult to isolate and is not very abundant, people generally prefer to use other lanthanides instead of thulium whenever possible.
This element is moderately toxic and has no known biological purpose in the human body. Use caution when handling the element, along with thulium-derived compounds and isotopes. The dust may pose an explosive risk, as it reacts with air, and it is probably not advisable to ingest thulium or inhale thulium fumes.
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