How to Use lanthanum in a Sentence

lanthanum

noun
  • To make the first one, lanthanum, start with a barium atom and add one proton and one electron.
    — Stanley Merzman, Discover Magazine, 21 Aug. 2018
  • Adding one more electron – to make lanthanum, the first in the series of rare earth elements – puts that electron in the fifth circle.
    — Stanley Merzman, Discover Magazine, 21 Aug. 2018
  • Ferrocerium is an alloy made from iron, along with cerium, lanthanum, and several other rare-earth minerals.
    — Tim MacWelch, Outdoor Life, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Instead of neodymium or dysprosium, the magnet uses less-expensive rare-earth metals lanthanum and cerium.
    — Megan Geuss, Ars Technica, 28 Feb. 2018
  • The problem is that while demand for praseodymium and neodymium is high there is limited demand for other elements which are mined in conjunction, such as cerium and lanthanum.
    — Tim Treadgold, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2021
  • The first class includes repeating cagelike structures made from hydrogen atoms, with each cage enclosing an electron-rich metal atom, such as lanthanum or yttrium.
    — Robert F. Service, Science | AAAS, 26 Aug. 2021
  • The aquatic plant contains the elements platinum and rhodium, along with rare-earth elements like neodymium, lanthanum, yttrium and dysprosium.
    — Devika Rao, theweek, 22 May 2024
  • Over the next 3 years, Eremets and others boosted the Tc as high as 250 K in hydrides containing the heavy metal lanthanum.
    — Robert F. Service, Science | AAAS, 26 Aug. 2021
  • The lanthanide and actinide series — those two rows floating by themselves, named after their first members, lanthanum and actinium — are isolated like that as a concession to limited space.
    — Bill Andrews, Discover Magazine, 26 June 2019
  • Over the next 3 years, Eremets and others boosted the Tc as high as 250 K in hydrogen-rich compounds containing lanthanum.
    — Robert F. Service, Science | AAAS, 14 Oct. 2020
  • The Prius gets its juice from a battery pack that contains about 20 pounds of lanthanum, which shuttles electrons between the battery’s positive and negative terminals.
    — Hugh Aldersey-Williams, Discover Magazine, 21 Sep. 2011
  • Rare earth elements, such as lanthanum, neodymium and terbium, are critical for helping the world break its long, destructive relationship with planet-heating fossil fuels.
    — Laura Paddison, CNN, 24 Sep. 2024
  • Lanthanum hydrides—which combine atoms of the rare earth metal lanthanum with atoms of hydrogen—contain a range of superconducting materials of varying properties.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2024
  • The 17 rare earth metals, some with exotic names like lanthanum and europium, form unusually strong lightweight magnetic materials.
    — Eliza Strickland, Discover Magazine, 15 Oct. 2010
  • Egyptian glasses tended to have higher levels of lanthanum, zirconium and titanium, while Near Eastern glasses tended to have more chromium.
    — Carolyn Wilke, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Nov. 2021
  • On a recent visit, Lynas technicians mixed rare earth concentrate, which looks to the untrained eye like unremarkable dirt, into chemical tanks that extract elements like lanthanum and cerium.
    — Alexandra Stevenson, New York Times, 11 July 2018
  • Formation under ambient conditions Monazite is a phosphate mineral rich in REEs such as cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 12 Nov. 2025
  • The composition of the deposit, however, is such that more than three-quarters of the rare earth elements are the light rare earths cerium and lanthanum, used in oil refining equipment and catalytic converters in internal combustion engine vehicles.
    — Mary Hui, Quartz, 15 July 2021
  • Naturally, lanthanum decahydride‘s discovery sent scientists scrambling after other lanthanum hydrides.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2024
  • Sourcing solutions Rare earth elements like lanthanum, neodymium and terbium are used in powering several clean energy technologies, including electric vehicles and wind turbines.
    — Devika Rao, theweek, 1 Oct. 2024
  • At present, the ‘hottest’ superconductor of any kind is considered to be lanthanum decahydride, a member of the super-hydride class that is proven to be a high-pressure, conventional superconductor at temperatures of up to at least 250 kelvin.
    — Davide Castelvecchi, Scientific American, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Now a different lanthanum hydride (La4H23) has revealed similar if not quite equally impressive superconductivity stats.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2024
  • The mineral deposits at Bear Lodge contain both the magnet rare earth materials neodymium, praseodymium, samarium and terbium as well as cerium (Ce), lanthanum, yttrium, gadolinium, europium and dysprosium.
    — Aditya Jadhav, Interesting Engineering, 10 June 2026
  • However, the new lanthanum hydride also has revealingly peculiar magnetic properties that suggest an unexpected family resemblance to the superstar of the superconductivity world, cuprates.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2024
  • These materials, like lithium lanthanum zirconate (LLZO), offer exceptional electrochemical stability and the best theoretical performance metrics.
    — Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lanthanum.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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