Terbium Oxide (Tb4O7) Powder

Terbium oxide (Tb₄O₇) is one of the many terbium oxides such as Tb₂O₃, TbO₂, and Tb₆O₁₁. It is one of the main commercial terbium compounds. Tb₄O₇ powder has a dark brown appearance. Tb₄O₇ decomposes to sesquioxide (Tb₂O₃) by losing oxygen at around 600 °C under the hydrogen atmosphere. It has a cubic fluorite form and stable at this form up to a pressure of ∼27 GPa. Tb₄O₇ powders have been used as precursors for the synthesis of lanthanide nanophosphors and superconductor materials. In addition, Tb₄O₇ can be used as analytical reagents for food analysis. Similar to other rare earth oxides, terbium oxide also provides interesting magnetic and optical properties. These properties of Tb₄O₇ are utilized in magneto-optical glasses and magneto-optical recording materials. Another important aspect of Tb₄O₇ is its catalytic activity. It is found to be effective for catalytic applications in automobile exhaust converter and oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane.