Scandium

Scandium:

Image of Scandium ore

Facts about Scandium:

  • Scandium: Scandium is silvery white in colour and reacts with air and water.
  • Fun fact about Scandium: Aluminium-Scandium alloys is used for sports equipment that needs to be strong and light weight. Such as bicycle frames, fishing rods, golf iron shafts and baseball bats.
  • Chemical symbol: Sc
  • Atomic number: 44.96

A crystal structure containing Scandium:

Structure of a hexa-coordinated colourless complex of Scandium 3+ ions

Facts about this structure:

  • Formula: C6 H14 Cl3 O3 Sc
  • Structure name: Trichloro-(2,5,8-trioxononane)-scandium
  • Fun fact about the structure: This is a hexacoordinated Scandium complex. Even though Scandium is a member of the 3D block of elements this crystal is colorless, as most Scandium complexes are.
  • CSD refcode: CORNIG (What's this?)
  • Associated publication: V.Ripert, L.G.Hubert-Pfalzgraf, J.Vaissermann, Polyhedron, 1999, 18, 1845, DOI: 10.1016/S0277-5387(99)00063-7

More info:

Scandium is the first member of the 3D block elements and the first rare earth elements. Scandium exhibits +3 oxidation state. In Sc3+ state, it has a completely empty 3D sub-shell. For this reason, generally Scandium complexes are colourless. Scandium is also not a transition metal in the true sense since it cannot exist in wide variety of transition states. Scandium has also no known biological role and is a suspected carcinogen.

More info about the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) in crystals project:

This project (#IYPTCrystals) is part of the International Year of the Periodic Table celebration (#IYPT2019), read more about the project here. You can follow us on social media using #IYPTCrystals and learn more about the wonders of crystals by following the CCDC on Twitter @ccdc_cambridge on Facebook ccdc.cambridge, on Instagram ccdc_cambridge or on YouTube CCDCCambridge.

If you want to find out more about some of the terms and concepts we have a Frequently Asked Questions Page.

A visualisation showing the structure containing Scandium alongside other structures published in the same scientific article:

Terms of UsePrivacy Policy