What is the most dense metal in the world.?
Lutetium (Lu), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table; the hardest and densest rare-earth element, last member of the lanthanide series. Lutetium was discovered (1907–08) by Carl Auer von Welsbach and Georges Urbain, working independently. Urbain derived the name for the element from Lutetia, which was the ancient Roman name for Paris. The name Urbain gave it to honour Paris, his native city, became widely accepted, except in Germany, where it was commonly called cassiopeium until the 1950s. One of the rarest of the rare earths, lutetium occurs in rare-earth minerals such as xenotime and euxenite. Though it composes only about 0.003 percent of the commercially important mineral monazite, it has proved feasible to extract it as a by-product. Separation and purification are accomplished by ion-exchange techniques. Lutetium is also found in the products of nuclear fission. The metal has been prepared by thermoreduction of the anhydrous halides by
