Rare earth elements critical to many modern devices

By Richard Brill

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 04, 2011

~~<p>The rare earths are a relatively abundant group of 17 elements that are so chemically similar that 15 of them occupy a single row and column in the periodic table.</p>
<p>They occur as oxides, or 'earths' in the old chemical jargon, and they are not really so rare. The elements range from the 25th most abundant element in Earth's crust at 60 parts per million (similar to copper) to those less abundant at 0.5 part per million.</p>
~~

The rare earths are a relatively abundant group of 17 elements that are so chemically similar that 15 of them occupy a single row and column in the periodic table.

They occur as oxides, or 'earths' in the old chemical jargon, and they are not really so rare. The elements range from the 25th most abundant element in Earth's crust at 60 parts per million (similar to copper) to those less abundant at 0.5 part per million. Login for more...