Erbium (Er), element 68 – Learn Acer periodic table

Erbium

Lanthanide, atomic number 68.

Erbium is a chemical element in the lanthanide series, with symbol Er and atomic number 68. A silvery-white solid metal when artificially isolated, natural erbium is always found in chemical combination with other elements on Earth. As such, it is a rare earth element which is associated with several other rare elements in the mineral gadolinite from Ytterby in Sweden, where yttrium, ytterbium, and terbium were discovered.

Facts

Symbol Er. Atomic mass 167.2593 u. Group 3, period 6. Electron configuration [Xe] 4f12 6s2. Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 30, 8, 2. State at room temperature: Solid. Melting point 1528.8 °C, boiling point 2867.8 °C. Discovered by Carl Gustaf Mosander.

Element data from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.