Nils Gabriel Sefström

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nils Gabriel Sefström
Born(1787-06-02)2 June 1787
Died30 November 1845(1845-11-30) (aged 58)
NationalitySwedish
Known forRediscovery of vanadium
Scientific career
Doctoral advisorJöns Jakob Berzelius

Nils Gabriel Sefström (2 June 1787 – 30 November 1845) was a Swedish chemist. Sefström was a student of Berzelius and, when studying the brittleness of steel in 1830, he rediscovered a new chemical element, to which he gave the name vanadium.[1]

Vanadium was first discovered by the Spanish-Mexican mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río in 1801. He named it erythronium. Friedrich Wöhler later confirmed that vanadium and erythronium were the same substance.[2]

Sefström was member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1815.

The Spitzbergen glacier Sefströmbreen,[3] and the mountain ridge of Sefströmkammen, are named after him.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ N. G. Sefström (1831). "Ueber das Vanadin, ein neues Metall, gefunden im Stangeneisen von Eckersholm, einer Eisenhütte, die ihr Erz von Taberg in Småland bezieht". Annalen der Physik und Chemie. 97 (1): 43–49. Bibcode:1831AnP....97...43S. doi:10.1002/andp.18310970103.
  2. ^ Pedro Cintas (2004). "The Road to Chemical Names and Eponyms: Discovery, Priority, and Credit". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 43 (44): 5888–5894. doi:10.1002/anie.200330074. PMID 15376297.
  3. ^ "Sefströmbreen (Svalbard)". Norwegian Polar Institute. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  4. ^ "Sefströmkammen (Svalbard)". Norwegian Polar Institute. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2014.

Further reading[edit]