Editing Samarium (section)

==History==
[[File:Lecoq de Boisbaudran.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran]], the discoverer of samarium | alt=Lecoq de Boisbaudran]]

Detection of samarium and related elements was announced by several scientists in the second half of the 19th century; however, most sources give priority to [[France|French]] chemist [[Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran]].<ref>[[#Greenwood|Greenwood]], p. 1229</ref><ref name="brit">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520309/samarium Samarium], Encyclopædia Britannica on-line</ref> Boisbaudran isolated samarium oxide and/or hydroxide in [[Paris]] in 1879 from the mineral [[samarskite]] {{chem2|((Y,Ce,U,Fe)3(Nb,Ta,Ti)5O16}}) and identified a new element in it via sharp optical absorption lines.<ref name="CRC">{{cite book |first=C. R. |last=Hammond |chapter=The Elements |title=Handbook of Chemistry and Physics |edition=81st |publisher=CRC press |isbn=978-0-8493-0481-1 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/crchandbookofche81lide |date=2004-06-29 |pages=4–27 |location=Boca Raton New York Washington }}</ref> Swiss chemist [[Marc Delafontaine]] announced a new element ''[[decipium]]'' (from {{langx|la|decipiens}} meaning "deceptive, misleading") in 1878,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Sur le décepium, métal nouveau de la samarskite |first=Marc |last=Delafontaine |journal=Journal de pharmacie et de chimie |volume=28 |page=540 |date=1878 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k78100m.image.r=Decipium.f548.langEN |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Sur le décepium, métal nouveau de la samarskite |first=Marc |last=Delafontaine |journal=Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences |volume=87 |page=632 |date=1878 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3044x.image.r=Decipium.f694.langEN |language=fr}}</ref> but later in 1880–1881 demonstrated that it was a mix of several elements, one being identical to Boisbaudran's samarium.<ref name="iupac">{{CIAAW2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Sur le décipium et le samarium |first=Marc |last=Delafontaine |journal=Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences |volume=93 |page=63 |date=1881 |language=fr |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3049g.image.r=Decipium.f63.langEN}}</ref> Though samarskite was first found in the [[Ural Mountains]] in [[Russia]], by the late 1870s it had been found in other places, making it available to many researchers. In particular, it was found that the samarium isolated by Boisbaudran was also impure and had a comparable amount of [[europium]]. The pure samarium(III) oxide was produced only in 1901 by [[Eugène-Anatole Demarçay]],<ref name="van" /><ref name="Weeks">{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Mary Elvira |title=The discovery of the elements |date=1956 |publisher=Journal of Chemical Education |location=Easton, PA |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftheel002045mbp |edition=6th}}</ref><ref name="XIII">{{cite journal |title=The discovery of the elements. XIII. Some elements predicted by Mendeleeff |pages=1605–1619 |last=Weeks |first=Mary Elvira |author-link=Mary Elvira Weeks |doi=10.1021/ed009p1605 |journal=[[Journal of Chemical Education]] |volume=9 |issue=9 |date=1932 |bibcode=1932JChEd...9.1605W}}</ref> and in 1903 Wilhelm Muthmann isolated the element.

Boisbaudran named his element ''samarium'' after the mineral samarskite, which in turn honored [[Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets]] (1803–1870). Samarsky-Bykhovets, as the Chief of Staff of the [[Russia]]n Corps of Mining Engineers, had granted access for two German mineralogists, the brothers [[Gustav Rose|Gustav]] and [[Heinrich Rose]], to study the mineral samples from the Urals.<ref name="bse">[https://bse.sci-lib.com/article099149.html Samarskite], [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]] (in Russian)</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url= https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3046j/f214.pagination|first= Lecoq de|last= Boisbaudran|title= Recherches sur le samarium, radical d'une terre nouvelle extraite de la samarskite|journal= Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences|volume= 89|date=1879|pages= 212–214}}</ref><ref>Shipley, Joseph Twadell. [https://books.google.com/books?id=m1UKpE4YEkEC&pg=PA90 ''The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots''], JHU Press, 2001, p.90. {{ISBN|0-8018-6784-3}}</ref> Samarium was thus the first chemical element to be named after a person.<ref name="van" /><ref name="RSC" /> The word ''samaria'' is sometimes used to mean samarium(III) oxide, by analogy with [[yttria]], [[zirconia]], [[alumina]], [[ceria]], [[Holmium(III) oxide|holmia]], etc. The symbol ''Sm'' was suggested for samarium, but an alternative ''Sa'' was often used instead until the 1920s.<ref name="van">[https://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=Sm Samarium: History & Etymology]. Elements.vanderkrogt.net. Retrieved on 2013-03-21.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Coplen|first1=T. B.|last2=Peiser|first2=H. S.|title=History of the recommended atomic-weight values from 1882 to 1997: A comparison of differences from current values to the estimated uncertainties of earlier values (Technical Report)|journal=Pure and Applied Chemistry |volume=70 |page=237 |date=1998|doi=10.1351/pac199870010237|s2cid=96729044|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1236255|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Before the advent of [[ion-exchange]] separation technology in the 1950s, pure samarium had no commercial uses. However, a by-product of fractional crystallization purification of neodymium was a mix of samarium and gadolinium that got the name "Lindsay Mix" after the company that made it, and was used for nuclear [[control rod]]s in some early nuclear reactors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ghaemi |first1=Arezoo |last2=Tavakkoli |first2=Haman |last3=Rajabi |first3=Negar |date=2015-06-01 |title=Solvent influence upon complex formation between 4,13-didecyl-1,7,10,16-tetraoxa-4,13-diazacyclooctadecane with samarium(III) metal cation in binary mixed non-aqueous solvents |journal=Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry |language=en |volume=88 |issue=6 |pages=977–984 |doi=10.1134/S1070427215060130 |s2cid=97051960 |issn=1608-3296}}</ref> Nowadays, a similar commodity product has the name "samarium-europium-[[gadolinium]]" (SEG) concentrate.<ref name="RSC">{{Cite web |title=Chemistry in Its Element - Samarium |url=http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/Interactive_Periodic_Table_Transcripts/Samarium.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045647/http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/Interactive_Periodic_Table_Transcripts/Samarium.asp |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> It is prepared by solvent extraction from the mixed [[lanthanide]]s isolated from bastnäsite (or monazite). Since heavier lanthanides have more affinity for the solvent used, they are easily extracted from the bulk using relatively small proportions of solvent. Not all rare-earth producers who process bastnäsite do so on a large enough scale to continue by separating the components of SEG, which typically makes up only 1{{endash}}2% of the original ore. Such producers therefore make SEG with a view to marketing it to the specialized processors. In this manner, the valuable europium in the ore is rescued for use in making [[phosphor]]. Samarium purification follows the removal of the europium. {{As of | 2012}}, being in oversupply, samarium oxide is cheaper on a commercial scale than its relative abundance in the ore might suggest.<ref name="price" />