Ytterbium

Element 70 · Lanthanide

Specimen

Atomic number: 70
Atomic mass: 173.05
State at room temperature: Solid
Melting point: 818.9 °C
Boiling point: 1,196 °C
Density: 6.9 g/cm³
Discovered: 1878

Physical data from PubChem.¹

Can I eat it?

In food and water: Not needed, little harm known. Ytterbium has no known function in the body. In one rat test, the dose that killed half the animals was 6.7 g per kg of body weight. The RSC lists it as low in toxicity. There are few studies of it in food. ²³

The atom

Shell	Electrons
1 (K)	2
2 (L)	8
3 (M)	18
4 (N)	32
5 (O)	8
6 (P) outermost	2
Total	70

Configuration [Xe] 4f¹⁴ 6s²

4f ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓

6s ↑ ↓

A shell diagram: each ring is an electron shell and each dot is one electron. The nucleus holds 70 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

Sources

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
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).
- 6700 mg/kg for ytterbium
3
Royal Society of Chemistry, 2026. Ytterbium - Element information, properties and uses .
- Ytterbium has no known biological role. It has low toxicity.

Specimen

Can I eat it?

The atom

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Sources