Curated category
Rare earth elements
- EuropiumIn the year 1896, French chemist Eugène-Anatole Demarçay examined spectral lines from samarium-gadolinium concentrates. He noticed faint lines that did not…
- DysprosiumIn 1886, French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran worked in Paris to separate dysprosium oxide from holmium oxide.
- CeriumIn 1803, Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger stood in a laboratory in Bastnäs, Sweden. They had just isolated a new substance from the heavy gangue…
- TerbiumSwedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander detected terbium as an impurity in yttrium oxide during 1843. He separated yttria into three fractions named yttria…
- YtterbiumIn 1878, Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac examined samples of gadolinite while working in Geneva. He found a new component within the earth…
- LanthanumIn 1839, the Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander examined a sample of cerium nitrate. He roasted it in air and treated the resulting oxide with dilute…
- PraseodymiumPraseodymium gets its name from two Ancient Greek words: prasinos, meaning 'leek-green', and didymos, meaning 'twin'. The leek-green half describes its salts.
- ErbiumCarl Gustaf Mosander stood in a laboratory in 1843 holding a sample of gadolinite from Ytterby, Sweden. He believed the mineral contained only one metal…
- NeodymiumIn 1885, the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach stood in a laboratory in Vienna and separated a complex mixture of rare-earth elements.
- ScandiumIn 1879, Swedish chemist Lars Fredrik Nilson examined minerals from Scandinavia under a spectroscope. He saw faint lines of light that did not belong to any…
- YttriumIn 1787, a part-time chemist named Carl Axel Arrhenius found a heavy black rock in an old quarry near the Swedish village of Ytterby.
- GadoliniumIn 1880, Swiss chemist Jean Charles de Marignac observed distinct spectroscopic lines in samples of gadolinite. He detected the oxide of a new element using…
- SamariumIn 1879, French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran isolated a new element from the mineral samarskite in Paris. He identified this substance through…