[Rockhounds] WAS removing gel now doping crystals with REE

[Axel Emmermann]

> That agrees with what I was told by a retired chemist who worked at Bell
> Labs trying to separate pure lanthanides (hey Axel, didn't you get the
> memo, we don't really call them REE any more--LOL!)

[Axel] Didn't get that memo or I forgot about it... That's allowed if you're
over 55 ;-)
 
> Some of them oxidize more easily than others--remember by story about
> the sealed capsule of elemental europium (or was it yttrium... I need to
> find where I put these) that was oxidized immediately upon being exposed
> to air after being isolated. 

[Axel] Last year I got an I got of neodymium from a friend about 4*2*2 cm.
It was in a plastic bottle with a screw cap. I came across it last weak, the
ingot 's gone. It's just a bottle of pink powder now. The one lanthanide
that I have in abundance and chemically pure is the one that is the best
fluorescence quencher (in the visible part of the spectrum) of them all.

>  Even when these elements can be isolated,
> getting them back into solution so they can take part in chemical
> reactions as substituents creates involves other challenges.

[Axel] Boiling the oxides in concentrated HCl works for most but you have to
keep the solution very acidic.

Cheers
Axel