What is the history of gadolinium?

Answer 1

Gadolinium is named from the mineral gadolinite, in turn named forFinnish chemist and geologist Johan Gadolin.[3] In 1880, the Swisschemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac observed the spectroscopic lines from gadolinium in samples of gadolinite (which actually contains relatively little gadolinium, but enough to show a spectrum) and in the separate mineral cerite. The latter mineral proved to contain far more of the element with the new spectral line. De Marignac eventually separated a mineral oxide from cerite, which he realized was the oxide of this new element. He named the oxide "gadolinia". Because he realized that "gadolinia" was the oxide of a new element, he is credited with discovery of gadolinium. The French chemistPaul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran carried out the separation of gadolinium metal from gadolinia in 1886.