Scandium oxide

Chemical properties

fine white powder(s) or sintered pieces of 3–12mm; used as an evaporation material of 99.99% purity to produce fairly hard coating which is very stable, and is useful for antireflection coating on semiconductors with high index [MER06] [CER91]
High-purity scandium oxide (i.e., 99.0 to 99.99 wt.% Sc) is an initial raw material used to produce a metallic scandium.
The growth of scandium oxide produces a smooth surface as evident by the AFM RMS roughness of 0.5 to 0.8 nm.The growth rate of the scandium oxide was 0.67nm/min for Tsc=1130℃ and 1.25nm/min for Tsc=1170℃.

The Uses of Scandium oxide

Scandium oxide (Sc2O3): 2Sc³⁺ + 3O^2- → Sc2O3. Scandium oxide is used to prepare scandium fluoride (ScF3), which is also used as an electrolyte to produce scandium metal.

The Uses of Scandium oxide

Scandium oxide is resistant to heat and thermal shock, hence finds use in high-temperature systems. Further, it is used in electronic ceramics and glass composition. It is used as a starting material for the preparation of other scandium compounds. In addition to this, it has vacuum deposition applications.

Preparation

Scandium Oxide, SC2O3: It is obtained readily by heating the salts such as scandium carbonate and scandium nitrate.
Sc2(CO3)3-Heat->Sc2O3+3CO2
4Sc(NO3)3-->2Sc2O3+12NO2+3O2
Scandium oxide is a white powder. It is more basic than aluminium oxide but less basic than calcium oxide. It absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.
It has the MnO3 structure.The crystal structure of scandium oxide is Bixbyite , which is an FCC array of scandium atoms with oxygen occupying 44 of the tetrahedral sites.

Definition

Scandium oxide has an extremely high melting point and is therefore likely to be an ionic compound, meaning its particles are joined by ionic bonds.

Solubility in water

The oxide of scandium is not soluble in water but it can be soluble in hot acids but sometimes it reacts also. But the scandium oxide is amphoteric as if the compound can react with acid as well as a base then the compound is said to be amphoteric.