Discoveries of the chemical elements

The discovery of the elements known to exist today is presented here in chronological order. The elements are listed generally in the order in which each was first defined as the pure element, as the exact date of discovery of most elements cannot be accurately defined. There are no written records for the discoveries of the first few elements.

Antiquity

Name	Date	Discoverer
Carbon	antiquity	Unknown
Copper	antiquity	Unknown
Gold	antiquity	Unknown
Iron	antiquity	Unknown
Lead	antiquity	Unknown
Mercury	antiquity	Unknown
Platinum	antiquity	Unknown; only in the New World.
Silver	antiquity	Unknown
Sulfur	antiquity	Unknown
Tin	antiquity	Unknown

13th century

Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
Arsenic	1250	Albertus Magnus is believed to have been the first to isolate the element.

15th century

Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
Antimony	1450	First described scientifically by Tholden
Bismuth	15th century?	May have been described in writings attributed to Basil Valentinus, definitively identified by Claude François Geoffroy in 1753

16th century

Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
Zinc	1526	Identified as a unique metal by Paracelsus

17th century

Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
Phosphorus	1669	Hennig Brand, later described by Robert Boyle	First element to be chemically discovered.

18th century

Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
Cobalt	1732	Georg Brandt
Platinum	ca. 1741	Discovered independently by Antonio de Ulloa (published 1748) and Charles Wood.	Noticed in South American gold ore since the 16th century.
Nickel	1751	Axel Fredrik Cronstedt
Magnesium	1755	Joseph Black
Hydrogen	1766	Isolated and described by Henry Cavendish, named by Antoine Lavoisier
Oxygen	1771	Joseph Priestley	Because of his belief in phlogiston, Priestley did not realize that he had prepared a new element, and thought that he had managed to prepare air free from phlogiston ("de-phlogisticated air").
Nitrogen	1772	Daniel Rutherford
Chlorine	1774	Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Manganese	1774	Johan Gottlieb Gahn
Molybdenum	1778	Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Tellurium	1782	Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein
Tungsten	1783	Juan José Elhuyar and Fausto Elhuyar
Uranium	1789	Martin Heinrich Klaproth	Named after the newly discovered planet, Uranus.
Zirconium	1789	Martin Heinrich Klaproth
Strontium	1793	Martin Heinrich Klaproth
Yttrium	1794	Johan Gadolin
Titanium	1797	Martin Heinrich Klaproth
Chromium	1797	Louis Nicolas Vauquelin

19th century

Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
Vanadium	1801	Andrés Manuel del Río	Originally called panchromium, and later erythronium, by its discoverer, but the discovery was not recognized at the time. It was called vanadium by Nils Gabriel Sefström, who rediscovered it 29 years later.
Niobium	1801	Charles Hatchett	Named columbium by discoverer.
Tantalum	1802	Anders Gustaf Ekeberg
Cerium	1803	Martin Heinrich Klaproth; Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger	Named after the newly discovered asteroid, Ceres. Discovered nearly simultaneously in two laboratories, though it was later shown that Berzelius and Hisinger's cerium was actually a mixture of cerium, lanthanum and so-called didymium.
Rhodium	1803	William Hyde Wollaston
Palladium	1803	William Hyde Wollaston	Named after the newly discovered asteroid, Pallas.
Osmium	1803	Smithson Tennant
Iridium	1803	Smithson Tennant
Potassium	1807	Humphry Davy	Discovered using electricity from the Voltaic pile to decompose the salts of alkali metals.
Sodium	1807	Humphry Davy	Discovered using electricity from the Voltaic pile to decompose the salts of alkali metals; discovered a few days after potassium, using the same method.
Calcium	1808	Humphry Davy	Discovered using electricity from the Voltaic pile to decompose the salts of alkali metals.
Barium	1808	Humphry Davy	Discovered using electricity from the Voltaic pile to decompose the salts of alkali metals.
Boron	1808	Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac & Louis-Jacques Thenard
Iodine	1811	Bernard Courtois
Lithium	1817	Johan August Arfwedson
Cadmium	1817	Friedrich Strohmeyer Independently discovered by K.S.L Hermann
Selenium	1817	Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Silicon	1823	Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Aluminium	1825	Hans Christian Ørsted
Bromine	1826	Antoine Jérôme Balard
Thorium	1828	Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Beryllium	1828	Friedrich Wöhler. Independently discovered by A.A.B. Bussy	Discovered as an oxide in beryl and emerald by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin in 1798, but not isolated until 1828.
Lanthanum	1839-41	Carl Gustaf Mosander	Discovered when Mosander showed that the cerium isolated in 1803 by Berzelius was actually a mixture of cerium, lanthanum and so-called didymium.
Terbium	1843	Carl Gustaf Mosander
Erbium	1843	Carl Gustaf Mosander
Ruthenium	1844	Karl Klaus
Caesium	1860	Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff	First identified by its blue spectroscopic emission line.
Rubidium	1860	Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff	First identified by its red spectroscopic emission line.
Thallium	1861	Sir William Crookes	First identified by its bright green spectroscopic emission line.
Indium	1863	Ferdinand Reich and Theodor Richter	First identified by its indigo-blue spectroscopic emission line.
Helium	1868	Independently by Pierre Jansen and Norman Lockyer	First identified by astronomers as an emission line in the spectrum of the sun.
Gallium	1875	Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran	Predicted by Mendeleev in 1871 as ekaaluminium.
Ytterbium	1878	Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac
Thulium	1879	Per Teodor Cleve
Scandium	1879	Lars Fredrik Nilson	Predicted by Mendeleev in 1871 as ekaboron.
Holmium	1879	Marc Delafontaine, Jacques-Louis Soret and Per Teodor Cleve
Samarium	1879	Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran
Gadolinium	1880	Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac
Praseodymium	1885	Carl Auer von Welsbach	The didymium isolated by Mosander in 1839 was shown to be two separate elements; praseodymium and neodymium.
Neodymium	1885	Carl Auer von Welsbach	The didymium isolated by Mosander in 1839 was shown to be two separate elements, praseodymium and neodymium.
Dysprosium	1886	Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran
Germanium	1886	Clemens Winkler	Predicted by Mendeleev in 1871 as ekasilicon.
Fluorine	1886	Joseph Henri Moissan
Argon	1894	Lord Rayleigh & Sir William Ramsay	Discovered by comparing the molecular weights of nitrogen prepared by liquefaction from air and nitrogen prepared by chemical means.
Neon	1898	Sir William Ramsay	Separated from liquid argon by difference in boiling point.
Krypton	1898	Sir William Ramsay	Separated from liquid argon by difference in boiling point.
Xenon	1898	Sir William Ramsay	Separated from liquid argon by difference in boiling point.
Radium	1898	Pierre Curie and Marie Curie
Polonium	1898	Pierre Curie and Marie Curie
Radon	1898	Friedrich Ernst Dorn, who called it niton	Discovered as a product of the radioactive decay of radium.
Actinium	1899	André-Louis Debierne

20th century

Number	Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
63	Europium	1901	Eugene Demarcay
71	Lutetium	1907	Georges Urbain
91	Protactinium	1917	Kasimir Fajans, O. Göhring, Fredrich Soddy, John Cranston, Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn
72	Hafnium	1923	Dirk Coster and György Hevesy
75	Rhenium	1925	Walter Noddack and Ida Tacke	Last stable element to be discovered.
43	Technetium	1937	Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè	First synthetic element discovered. Predicted by Mendeleev in 1871 as ekamanganese.
87	Francium	1939	Marguerite Perey	Last element to be discovered in nature, rather than synthesized in the lab. Note that some of the "synthetic" elements that were discovered later (plutonium, neptunium, astatine) were eventually found in trace amounts in nature as well.
85	Astatine	1940	Dale R. Corson, K.R.Mackenzie, Emilio Segrè	Later determined to occur naturally in minuscule quantitites (<25 grams in earth's crust).
93	Neptunium	1940	E.M. McMillan & Philip H. Abelson, University of California, Berkeley	First transuranium element discovered.
94	Plutonium	1941	Glenn T. Seaborg, Arthur C. Wahl, Joseph W. Kennedy, Emilio Segrè
95	Americium	1944	Glenn T. Seaborg
96	Curium	1944	Glenn T. Seaborg
61	Promethium	1945	Jacob A. Marinsky
97	Berkelium	1949	Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, Stanley G. Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr.
98	Californium	1950	Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, Stanley G. Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr.
99	Einsteinium	1952	Argonne Laboratory, Los Alamos Laboratory, and University of California
100	Fermium	1953	Argonne Laboratory, Los Alamos Laboratory, and University of California
101	Mendelevium	1955	Glenn T. Seaborg, Evans G. Valens
102	Nobelium	1958	Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, John R. Walton and Torbørn Sikkeland
103	Lawrencium	1961	Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Almon Larsh and Robert M. Latimer
104	Rutherfordium	1964	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, USSR
105	Dubnium	1967	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, USSR. Later confirmed by Albert Ghiorso
106	Seaborgium	1974	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and University of California, Berkeley
107	Bohrium	1976	Y. Oganessian et al, Dubna and confirmed at GSI (1982)
109	Meitnerium	1982	Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg, GSI
108	Hassium	1984	Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg
110	Darmstadtium	1994	S. Hofmann, V. Ninov et al, GSI
111	Roentgenium	1994	S. Hofmann, V. Ninov et al, GSI
112	Ununbium	1996	S. Hofmann, V. Ninov et al, GSI
114	Ununquadium	1999	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna

21st century

Number	Name	Date	Discoverer	Notes
116	Ununhexium	2001	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna
113	Ununtrium	2004	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
115	Ununpentium	2004	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
118	Ununoctium	2006	Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

See also

• Periodic table
• Elements song
• Ytterby

External links

• History of Elements of the Periodic Table