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Lutetium

Element 71 · Lanthanide

Specimen

Atomic number
71
Atomic mass
174.967
State at room temperature
Solid
Melting point
1,663 °C
Boiling point
3,402 °C
Density
9.84 g/cm³
Discovered
1907

Physical data from PubChem.1

Can I eat it?

In food and water
Not needed, little harm known. Lutetium has no known function in the body. In rats, the dose of lutetium chloride that killed half the animals was 7.1 g per kg of body weight. The RSC lists it as low in toxicity. There are few studies of it in food. 23

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The atom

Lu
ShellElectrons
1 (K) 2
2 (L) 8
3 (M) 18
4 (N) 32
5 (O) 9
6 (P) outermost 2
Total71

Configuration [Xe] 4f¹⁴ 5d¹ 6s²

4f ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓
5d ↑
6s ↑ ↓
A shell diagram: each ring is an electron shell and each dot is one electron. The nucleus holds 71 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

Group 3
Sc Scandium Y Yttrium Lr Lawrencium

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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).

    • 7100 mg/kg for lutetium chloride
  3. 3

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

    • Lutetium has no known biological role. It has low toxicity.