Lanthanum oxide

  • Lanthansesquioxid
  • Dilanthantrioxid
  • Lanthanum (III ) oxide

White, odorless solid

Fixed

6.51 g · cm -3

2315 ° C

4200 ° C

Insoluble in water

-1794.9 KJ / mol

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Lanthanum oxide is the oxide of the rare earth metal lanthanum.

Occurrence

Lanthanum oxide is a compound selected from Lanthanmineralien such as: is prepared monazite, cerite, bastnaesite, Cheralith and samarskite.

Properties

Lanthanum oxide is a white powder. It reacts similar to calcium oxide with water strongly exothermic formation of lanthanum hydroxide.

Lanthanum oxide

Representation

According to the difficulty of separating the other lanthanides from their ores lanthanum oxalate is ultimately won, which is then annealed to produce lanthanum oxide La2O3.

Use

  • Lanthanum oxide is used mainly for the production of the pure metal lanthanum. For this purpose, it is converted by means of hydrogen fluoride (HF) to lanthanum or at higher temperatures by means of chlorine for anhydrous lanthanum. Both halides can then be reduced metallothermal mixed by calcium or magnesium to the metal.
  • High-purity lanthanum oxide is used in the glass industry to produce high quality glasses for optics such as camera lenses. Each lens of the cameras of the Mars rover for example, had at least one lens that was made ​​from the Schott - lanthanum LaFN21.
  • As La -Pb Mn catalyst is used for exhaust gas purification for internal-combustion engines, since it oxidizes not only carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, but also reduces the nitrogen oxides to nitrogen.
  • It is also used for the production of tungsten electrodes for welding.
  • Otherwise lanthanum oxide is used in the preparation of other lanthanum.
CAS registry number PubChem Rare earth element Exothermic reaction
240419
de