Scandium metal is silver gray rare earth. It oxidize in air and show light yellow or pink. The package should avoid fire, air, water and oxidizing agent. There are two different production methods for it, distillation method and reduction method. The distilled scandium get better quality than the reduced one. The distilled scandium is dendritic like crystal of metallic lustre. However the reduced one is broken irregular pieces. Scandium element is available in form of powder, sheet, piece, foil, wire, sputtering target.
Scandium Metal
It easy to ignite and react with water to generate hydrogen. Compounding with acid turn out salts. Scandium is almost the same to other rare earth metal elements on other chemical properties like yttrium. The highest purity is at Sc/REM 99% and REM 99.999%. Scandium ingot is of REM 99.99% normally. Scandium powder is of REM 99.9% and particle size -100mesh and -200mesh normally.
| CAS No.:7440-20-2 | EINECS No.:231-129-2 | Molecular Formula:Sc | Molecular Weight:44.956 |
| Melting Point:1541℃ | Boiling Point:2836℃ |
Applications
Scandium foil is light, but the melting point is much higher than aluminum. It could replace aluminum to make various aircraft. It is raw material for high-melting alloy, for example Al-Sc alloy. Mg-Sc alloy, Sc-Ti alloy, which can apply to space shuttle, rocket and other high-end purpose. Except these, scandium is additive for steel, tungsten and chromium alloy.
Scandium powder play important role in third generation Illuminant that is scandium sodium lamp. It is a kind of metal halide lamp that fill with sodium iodide and scandium iodide and at same time scandium and sodium foil in lamp.
Scandium slug is best barrier metal in metal-insulator-semiconductor silicon photocell and solar cell.