Talk:Cerium

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Article changed over to new Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by Fonzy, Gaz, Mkweise, and Dwmyers 15:01 Mar 3, 2003 (UTC). Elementbox converted 10:53, 10 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 13:46, 9 July 2005).

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[edit] Information Sources

Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Cerium. Additional text was taken directly from USGS Cerium Statistics and Information, USGS Periodic Table - Cerium, from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org). Data for the table was obtained from the sources listed on the subject page and Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements but was reformatted and converted into SI units.

[edit] Talk

It seems unlikely to me that Berzelius would have named Cerium after an asteroid. Ceres was goddess of agriculture (or grain) and the element is one of the rare-earth elements; also Tellus, earth goddess was sometimes confounded with Ceres. Seems to me more likely that the discovery of the asteroid brought Ceres to Berzelius' attention and so stimulated him to name the element after Ceres - but I do not, of course, know. Pdn 04:07, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Certainly I have always read that it was named after the asteroid- but I guess we can't be totally sure. If you look in Chemistry of the Elements (Greenwood & Earnshaw), a pretty authoritative text, it is given the asteroid explanation. I actually don't find it that surprising- from what I remember of astronomy, Ceres was the first asteroid to be discovered, so there was probably a lot of excitement aoming scientists at the time. Walkerma 23:14, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The asteroid was named after the goddess, and then the element was named after the asteroid. The same sequence occured for palladium and the asteroid Pallas.

The element is described as silvery white, but the picture looks brownish black...

[edit] Decompose

"Cerium decomposes slowly in cold water and rapidly in hot water."

What does "decompose" mean when referring to an element? RodC 11:49, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

You're quite right, an element can't chemically decompose (unless going to s simpler allotrope), but sometimes people use the word rather casually to mean "react"- in the sense here that the physical structure of the cerium is falling apart. I've altered the text to say "oxidise." Walkerma 17:44, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Reaction w/ Zinc, Bismuth & Antimony

Anyone have a source for the statement about cerium reacting with zinc, bismuth and antimony? This sounds false to me - I would expect them to alloy, potentially, but not to chemically react. dryguy 13:47, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

The following PDF verifies this fact. www.espi-metals.com/msds's/cerium.pdf. It doesn't seem that unlikely that it would react; nickel, palladium, and platinum react exothermically with aluminum to form metal aluminides.

Thanks for the MSDS. I was really wondering if anyone knows of a peer reviewed publication mentioning specific cerium compounds of zinc, bismuth or antimony, or reporting measurements of the heat output when cerium is mixed with said elements. Unfortunately, I have seen MSDS sheets before with wildly incorrect statements; I have the impression that there is no process to review them for accuracy. dryguy 23:35, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

"compression or cooling of the metal can change its oxidation state from about 3 to 4".

I don't understand the "about" bit... I think clarification is in order. 203.118.183.221 09:19, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

The word "It" is unclear in these two sentences in "Notable Characteristics": "Among rare earth elements only europium is more reactive. It tarnishes readily in the air." Please change "It" to Cerium or other if needed.Tullywinters (talk) 18:37, 29 January 2008 (UTC)