Term:
europium (Eu)
Literally meaning: “pertaining to Europe, wide-gazing ”
Origin
ευρύς/evrys(=
broad)
+ ωψ/ops(=face)
The element called “europium” after
the continent Europe. According Greek
mythology the continent took its name
from a Phoenician princess whom one day, while she was gathering flowers, was abducted by Zeus (father of
gods) after assuming the form of a white bull. According Homer (8th cen BCE)
Europa was a great queen of Crete (Eυρώπη) giving birth to Minos, who would
become king of Crete. Eventually, the
term Europa was used to describe part of northern Greece and later (by 500BC)
other lands further north of Greece.
Coined/History
Europium was first found by French
chemist Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912) in 1800 but is credited to
French chemist Eugene—Anatole Demarcay(1852-1904) who managed to identified it while
studied spectroscopic lines of samarium.
He obt6ained it in 1901 using
repeated crystallization of samarium magnesium nitrate.
Definition
Europium is a rare-earth silvery-white and soft chemical element with atomic
number 63 and atomic mass 151.964. It is used in television colors as europia oxide.
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