Discoverer
Von Versebach
Discovery date
1885
Discovery process
In 1839, C.G. Mosander, a Swede, discovered the mixture of lanthanum and praseodymium and neodymium.
After that, chemists in various countries paid special attention to separating new elements from the discovered rare earth elements.
In 1885, Austrian A.V. Welsbach discovered praseodymium and neodymium from the mixture of praseodymium and neodymium that Mossendel considered as "new elements". One of them was named neodymium, which was later simplified to neodymium. The element symbol Nd is neodymium.
Neodymium, praseodymium, gadolinium and samarium were all separated from the rare earth element didymium, which was considered to be a rare earth element at that time. Because of their discovery, didymium is no longer retained. It is their discovery that opens the third door to the discovery of rare earth elements, which is the third stage of the discovery of rare earth elements. But this is only half the work of the third phase. Exactly, when the door of cerium is opened or cerium is separated, the other half will open the door of yttrium or complete the separation of yttrium.
