cerium

Also known as Ce, element 58, 58Ce

Cerium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ce and atomic number 58, and is a soft, ductile, and silvery-white metal that tarnishes when exposed to air. Cerium is the second element in the lanthanide series, and while it often shows the oxidation state of +3 characteristic of the series, it also has a stable +4 state that does not oxidize water. It is considered one of the rare-earth elements. Cerium has no known biological role in humans but is not particularly toxic, except with intense or continued exposure.

OverviewAI-generated

Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58. It has a mass of 140.116 and an electronegativity of 1.12. The element was discovered in 1804. Its chemical formula is Ce, and its canonical SMILES representation is [Ce].

The ionic radius of cerium is 1.34. In chemical databases, it is identified by the PubChem CID 23974 and the IUPAC name cerium. It has a topological polar surface area of 0, with zero hydrogen bond donors and acceptors, and a charge of 0. The Unicode character for cerium is 鈰.

References to cerium appear in 929 other encyclopedia articles. Medical literature includes 11,158 entries associated with the query "cerium."

Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubChem, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Chemical data

Formula: Ce
Molecular weight: 140.116 g/mol
IUPAC name: cerium
SMILES: [Ce]
InChIKey: GWXLDORMOJMVQZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N
Polar surface area: 0 Å²
H-bond donors: 0
H-bond acceptors: 0
Formal charge: 0

via PubChem

Research

11,158 papers

Harnessing cerium-based biomaterials for the treatment of bone diseases.ReviewActa biomaterialia · 2024Meng X, Wang WD, Li SR et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2024.05.046
Mechanisms of cerium-induced stress in plants: A meta-analysis.The Science of the total environment · 2022Agathokleous E, Zhou B, Geng C et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158352
Cerium Containing Bioactive Glasses: A Review.ReviewACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2021Zambon A, Malavasi G, Pallini A et al.DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00414
The Use of Cerium Compounds as Antimicrobials for Biomedical Applications.ReviewMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Barker E, Shepherd J, Asencio IODOI: 10.3390/molecules27092678
Cerium oxide nanoparticles: antioxidant properties in silicosis treatment and biomedical application prospects-a dialectical consideration.ReviewDrug delivery · 2026Ban G, Chen Y, Zhao R et al.DOI: 10.1080/10717544.2026.2634421
Cerium oxide nanoparticles: green synthesis and biological applications.ReviewInternational journal of nanomedicine · 2017Charbgoo F, Ahmad MB, Darroudi MDOI: 10.2147/IJN.S124855
Cerium oxide nanoparticles: a 'radical' approach to neurodegenerative disease treatment.ReviewNanomedicine (London, England) · 2017Naz S, Beach J, Heckert B et al.DOI: 10.2217/nnm-2016-0399
Cerium oxide nanoparticles in neuroprotection and considerations for efficacy and safety.ReviewWiley interdisciplinary reviews. Nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology · 2017Rzigalinski BA, Carfagna CS, Ehrich MDOI: 10.1002/wnan.1444

via PubMed

~24 min read

Encyclopedic overview

19 sections

Contents

Characteristics
Physical
Chemical properties of the element
Allotropes
Isotopes
Compounds
Halides
Oxides and chalcogenides
Cerium(IV) complexes
Organocerium compounds
History
Occurrence and production
Applications
Gas mantles and pyrophoric alloys
Pigments and phosphors
Other uses
Biological role and precautions
References
Bibliography

Despite always occurring in combination with the other rare-earth elements in minerals such as those of the monazite and bastnäsite groups, cerium is easy to extract from its ores, as it can be distinguished among the lanthanides by its unique ability to be oxidized to the +4 state in aqueous solution. It is the most common of the lanthanides, followed by neodymium, lanthanum, and praseodymium. Its estimated abundance in the Earth's crust is 68 ppm.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cerium” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.