Symbol

Gd

Atomic Number

64

Atomic Mass

157.25

Family

Lanthanide (Rare Earth Metal) Pronunciation

gad-uh-LIN-ee-um

Overview

Gadolinium was named for Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin (1760-1852). Gadolin served for many years as professor of chemistry at the University of Abo in Finland. He was the first person to study an unusual black stone discovered near the town of Ytterby, Sweden, in 1787. The stone was an unusually important discovery. Chemists isolated nine new elements from the stone, one of which was gadolinium.

Gadolinium is in Row 6 of the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to each other. The elements in Row 6 are called rare earth elements. They really aren't rare, but they are difficult to separate. For this reason, scientists know less about the rare earth elements than they do about most other elements. The rare earth metals are also called lanthanides. That...