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Gadolinium

Element 64 · Lanthanide

Specimen

Atomic number
64
Atomic mass
157.25
State at room temperature
Solid
Melting point
1,313 °C
Boiling point
3,273 °C
Density
7.9 g/cm³
Discovered
1880

Physical data from PubChem.1

Can I eat it?

In food and water
Not needed, little harm known. Gadolinium has no known function in the body. In a rat study, doses of gadolinium chloride up to 2 g per kg of body weight killed no animals. The RSC lists it as low in toxicity. There are few studies of it in food. 23

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The atom

Gd
ShellElectrons
1 (K) 2
2 (L) 8
3 (M) 18
4 (N) 25
5 (O) 9
6 (P) outermost 2
Total64

Configuration [Xe] 4f⁷ 5d¹ 6s²

4f ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
5d ↑
6s ↑ ↓
A shell diagram: each ring is an electron shell and each dot is one electron. The nucleus holds 64 protons. The outermost shell is shown in red. Electrons do not travel on rings: they fill orbitals, regions where an electron is likely to be found. The boxes are those orbitals for the electrons outside the Xe core, with one arrow per electron.

Related elements

Lanthanides
La Lanthanum Ce Cerium Pr Praseodymium Nd Neodymium Pm Promethium Sm Samarium Eu Europium Tb Terbium Dy Dysprosium Ho Holmium Er Erbium Tm Thulium Yb Ytterbium Lu Lutetium

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Sources

  1. 1

    National Center for Biotechnology Information (PubChem), 2026. Periodic Table of Elements .

    Atomic mass, electron configuration, melting and boiling points, density and discovery year for all 118 elements.

  2. 2

    Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), for the US Bureau of Land Management, 1999. Development of Reference Doses and Reference Concentrations for Lanthanides , Section 2.4 (oral toxicity data in experimental animals).

    • For gadolinium and samarium, oral doses up to 2 g/kg were without lethality.
  3. 3

    Royal Society of Chemistry, 2026. Gadolinium - Element information, properties and uses .

    • Gadolinium has no known biological role, and has low toxicity.