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Y
Ytterbium (Yb)
Element 70 on the periodic table. A metal belonging to the rare-earth metals and one of
the lanthanides.
Discovered in 1878 by Jean- Charles-Galinard de Marignac. He named it after the town of Ytterby, Sweden, where the rocks are unusually rich in rare earths. It has few uses.
Yttrium (Y)
Element 39 on the periodic table. A silvery metal belonging to the
rare-earth metals and one of the lanthanides.
Discovered in 1794 by Johan Gadolin and named after the town Ytterby, Sweden, where the rocks are unusually rich in rare earths.
Yttrium is used in metal alloys and for the red dots (phosphors) on colour television tubes.
Zirconium (Zr)
Element 40 on the periodic table. A soft, white metal belonging to the transition metals.
Zirconium was discovered in 1824 by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius. Crystals of zirconium oxide are used
in jewellery as a substitute for diamond, where it is known as cubic zirconia. It is also used as a structural material in nuclear reactors and as an alloy with magnesium and steel.
 Zirconium – Zirconium oxide makes common artificial diamonds.
Zirconium (Zr)
Z
Zinc (Zn)
Element 30 on the periodic table. A soft, easily shaped, grey metal belonging to the transition metals.
A commonly used metal, zinc has been alloyed with copper to produce brass for thousands of years. Zinc is an essential trace
mineral in the human body.
It corrodes slowly and is used
as a protective coating on steel; the combination is called galvanised iron.
Sphalerite
 Zinc – Zinc sulphide, sphalerite, is the main ore of zinc. It is shown here as the dark brown crystals together with yellow cubes of pyrite and some colourless quartz crystals.
 Zinc – Zinc is used to protect other metals through galvanizing. The steel rods holding up the Brooklyn Bridge are galvanised (zinc-coated) steel.
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