טרביום

Terbium was discovered in 1843 by Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander, who detected it as an impurity in yttria.

Using ammonium hydroxide he precipitated fractions of different basicity from yttria.

In these fractions he found that the fraction that was essentially colorless in solution, but gave a brown-tinged oxide was terbium.

Terbium is used in alloys and in the production of electronic devices.

It is also used as a dopant for materials in solid-state devices and optical fibers.

Terbium oxide is in fluorescent lamps and TV tubes.

The brilliant fluorescence allows terbium to be used as a probe in biochemistry.