Silver (Ag)
Silver has been known and valued as a precious metal since ancient times. The exact time of its discovery is unknown due to its early use in prehistoric cultures. Silver…
Category: Period Table of Elements
Palladium (Pd)
Palladium was discovered by English chemist William Hyde Wollaston in 1803 while he was working on platinum ores. Wollaston dissolved the ore in aqua regia (a mixture of hydrochloric and…
Ruthenium (Ru)
Ruthenium was discovered in 1844 by the Baltic German scientist Karl Ernst Claus at the University of Kazan, Russia. Claus isolated ruthenium from the platinum ores found in the Ural…
Rhodium (Rh)
Rhodium was discovered in 1803 by English chemist William Hyde Wollaston shortly after his discovery of palladium. Wollaston discovered rhodium in platinum ore he obtained from South America, using crude…
Technetium (Tc)
Technetium was the first element to be artificially produced, marking a significant milestone in nuclear chemistry. It was discovered in 1937 by Italian scientists Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè, who…
Molybdenum (Mo)
Molybdenum was discovered in 1778 by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who identified it as a distinct element from a mineral that had been confused with graphite and lead ore.…
Niobium (Nb)
Niobium was discovered by the English chemist Charles Hatchett in 1801 when he analyzed a sample of columbite and detected an unknown element, which he named columbium. The element was…
Zirconium (Zr)
Zirconium was discovered by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1789. Klaproth identified a new element in a sample of zircon (zirconium silicate, ZrSiO₄) from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He…
Yttrium (Y)
Yttrium was discovered by Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin in 1794. The discovery came after analyzing a mineral from a quarry in Ytterby, Sweden, which led to the identification of a…
Strontium (Sr)
Strontium was discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank, who identified a new mineral (strontianite) in lead mines near the Scottish village of Strontian. They realized that this…