Dysprosium is a chemical element

Chemical element

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

 with the symbol Dy and atomic number

Atomic number

In chemistry and physics, the atomic number is the number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom and therefore identical to the charge number of the nucleus. It is conventionally represented by the symbol Z. The atomic number uniquely identifies a chemical element...

 66. It is a rare earth element

Rare earth element

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium...

 with a metallic silver luster. Dysprosium is never found in nature as a free element, though it is found in various minerals, such as xenotime

Xenotime

Xenotime is a rare earth phosphate mineral, whose major component is yttrium orthophosphate . It forms a solid solution series with chernovite- and therefore may contain trace impurities of arsenic, as well as silicon dioxide and calcium...

. Naturally occurring dysprosium is composed of 7 isotope

Isotope

Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...

s, the most abundant of which is ¹⁶⁴Dy.

Dysprosium was first identified in 1886 by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran

Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran

Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran was a French chemist known for his discoveries of the chemical elements gallium, samarium and dysprosium.-Biography:...

, but was not isolated in pure form until the development of ion exchange

Ion exchange

Ion exchange is an exchange of ions between two electrolytes or between an electrolyte solution and a complex. In most cases the term is used to denote the processes of purification, separation, and decontamination of aqueous and other ion-containing solutions with solid polymeric or mineralic 'ion...

 techniques in the 1950s.