15 Nov 2019

Terbium - turns up in old TVs & new Euro notes

From Elemental, 8:00 am on 15 November 2019

A discovery from the chemically prolific Swedish village of Ytterby, the lanthanoid terbium produced the green on old TV sets & adds security to Euro notes, says Professor Allan Blackman from the Auckland University of Technology, in episode 83 of Elemental.

For further elements named after Ytterby, see erbium, yttrium and ytterbium (although you’ll have to wait for the latter two).

No caption

Photo: RNZ

You can subscribe to the Elemental podcast for free, at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic and iHeartRADIO.

The Elemental podcast is celebrating 150 years since the periodic table was first published by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.

Find out more about events during the United Nation’s International Year of the Periodic Table.

Professor Allan Blackman is at Auckland University of Technology.