WHY IS EUROPIUM IMPORTANT?
Element 63, also known as Europium was discovered in 1901 by Eugene Demarcay. Europium is a hard metal that has a mass of 151.96 a.m.u. This element belongs to the Lathanoid family on the periodic table of elements. Europium is silvery- white and has an atomic radius of 231pm. There are many uses that compounds of Europium could be used for, such as photon emitters, a phosphor activator, and in the performance of scintillating crystals. There are even more important uses that Europium is used for in today’s world.
Today Europium is used in TVs to produce the red color everyone sees today. Europium is used as a phosphor, but the way TVs are being set up now it's more likely to be found in white LED lights. It is being considered that Europium could be an energy saving replacement for incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. Europium lets out a very high quality white color which is used in our TVs today. In 1967, Europium was first used to make color TV sets produce a red color. Imagine if Europium were to have never been discovered? This element is important because it has the potential to help our environment in replacing light bulbs in a more energy sufficient manner and it is very important in the way we watch TV today.
Europium is used in nuclear reactors around everywhere in nuclear power plants to generate electricity. Europium is a highly reactive rare earth element, making it the most expensive of all rare earth elements. Being the most reactive element allows it to be used in making nuclear reactors and the reactors working successfully. Nuclear reactors are used to generate the electricity for a whole town/city that we all use today. Without Europium, making nuclear reactors used in nuclear power plants would be impossible and some parts of our town/city would be left without electricity.
This element is also used in tests to screen for abnormalities. It is used in testing diseases such as Down syndrome. This works in such...