List of misidentified chemical elements

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Chemical elements that have been mistakenly "discovered". Further investigation showed that their discovery was either mistaken, that they have been mistaken from an already-known element, or mixture of two elements, or that they indicated a failing in theory where a new element had been assumed rather than some previously unknown behaviour. [lower-roman 1]

NameSymbolAtomic numberActual elementDiscovery dateDiscoverer
Alabamium Ab85 Astatine 1931 Fred Allison
Alkalinium 87 Francium 1926 Gerald J. F. Druce, Frederick H. Loring
Anglohelvetium See Helvetium
Arconium 1911J. W. Nicholson
Asterium 1898 Norman Lockyer, Carl David Tolmé Runge, Friedrich Paschen
Aurorium 1874 William Huggins [1]
Ausenium Ao93 Neptunium 1934 Enrico Fermi [2] [3]
Austrium 31 Gallium 1886 Eduard Linnemann Hypothesised from spectral line observations in the rare-earth mineral orthite. [4] It was later confirmed that these lines were due to the recently discovered gallium.
Berzelium Bz90 Thorium 1901 Charles Baskerville See Carolinium
Bohemium 93 Neptunium 1934 Odolen Koblic
Carolinium Cn90 Thorium 1901 Charles Baskerville With Berzelium, erroneously identified as a mixture of three elements, with thorium, during work at the University of North Carolina. [5]
Coronium 26 Iron 1869 Charles Augustus Young
and William Harkness
Hypothesised from a 530.3 nm green emission line in the solar coronal spectrum. Later, around 1902, renamed as Newtonium. In the 1930s recognised as highly ionized iron, rather than a new element.
Cyclonium 61 Promethium 1941H. B. Law, Ohio State University
Dakin Dk85 Astatine 1937Rajendralal De Cepare
Davyum Iridium and rhodium 1877 Serge Kern [6]
Decipium Samarium and other rare earths 1878 Marc Delafontaine Thought to have been isolated from the mineral samarskite in 1878. [7]
Dianium Niobium and tantalum 1860 Wolfgang Franz von Kobell See Pelopium
Didymium Praseodymium and neodymium 1841 Carl Mosander
Dorine 85 Astatine 1936 Horia Hulubei, Yvette Cauchois
Eka-caesium 87 Francium
Eka-rhenium 107 Bohrium
Florentium 61 Promethium 1924Luigi Rolla and Lorenzo Fernandes
Ghiorsium Gh118 Oganesson 1999 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Gnomium Similarities to nickel and iron 1892 Gerhard Krüss
and F. W. Schmidt
Not discovered, but hypothesised to explain discrepancies within the iron group elements for an early periodic table ordered by mass. The concept of atomic number clarified the situation without requiring the invention of a new element.
Helvetium 85 Astatine 1940 Walter Minder Rediscovered[ sic ] in 1942 and named Anglohelvetium
Hesperium Hs94 Plutonium 1934 Enrico Fermi [2] [3]
Illinium 61 Promethium 1926Smith Hopkins and Len Yntema, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Ilmenium Niobium and tantalum 1847R. HermannSee Pelopium
Lucium 39 Yttrium 1896 Prosper Barrière
Masurium 43 Technetium 1925 Walter Noddack, Otto Berg, Ida Noddack
Moldavium Mi87 Francium 1936 Horia Hulubei, Yvette Cauchois
Monium 1898See Victorium
Muriaticum 17 Chlorine 1774 Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Murium 1785 Claude Louis Berthollet
Nebulium Oxygen 1864 William Huggins
Neutronium 0(Neutronium)1926 Andreas von Antropoff
Newtonium 1902See Coronium
Ninovium Nv118 Oganesson 1999 Victor Ninov Studies proved inconsistencies in the data shown from Victor Ninov
Nipponium Np75 Rhenium 1908 Masataka Ogawa [8]
Pelopium Niobium and tantalum 1846 Heinrich Rose Confused with mixtures of the difficult to distinguish niobium and tantalum, extracted from the mineral tantalite. [9]
Polinium 77 Iridium 1828 Gottfried Osann
Ptene 76 Osmium 1803 Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils, Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, Smithson Tennant
Protyle 1816 William Prout
Russium 87 Francium 1925 D. K. Dobroserdov
Sergenium Sg108 Hassium 1963 Victor Cherdyntsev
Sequanium 93 Neptunium 1939 Horia Hulubei Thought to have been present in tantalite ore, actually not present, rather than mis-identified. [10]
Unbibium Ubb122(Unbibium)2008 Amnon Marinov
Victorium Gadolinium and terbium 1898 William Crookes
Virginium Vi (Vm)87 Francium 1930 Fred Allison
Wasium Mixture of rare earths 1862 J. F. Bahr Another element identified in ores from Ytterby. [11]

Related Research Articles

The discoveries of the 118 chemical elements known to exist as of 2024 are 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 determined. There are plans to synthesize more elements, and it is not known how many elements are possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holmium</span> Chemical element, symbol Ho and atomic number 67

Holmium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ho and atomic number 67. It is a rare-earth element and the eleventh member of the lanthanide series. It is a relatively soft, silvery, fairly corrosion-resistant and malleable metal. Like many other lanthanides, holmium is too reactive to be found in native form, as pure holmium slowly forms a yellowish oxide coating when exposed to air. When isolated, holmium is relatively stable in dry air at room temperature. However, it reacts with water and corrodes readily, and also burns in air when heated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hafnium</span> Chemical element, symbol Hf and atomic number 72

Hafnium is a chemical element; it has symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray, tetravalent transition metal, hafnium chemically resembles zirconium and is found in many zirconium minerals. Its existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, though it was not identified until 1922, by Dirk Coster and George de Hevesy, making it one of the last two stable elements to be discovered. Hafnium is named after Hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen, where it was discovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meitnerium</span> Chemical element, symbol Mt and atomic number 109

Meitnerium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Mt and atomic number 109. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element. The most stable known isotope, meitnerium-278, has a half-life of 4.5 seconds, although the unconfirmed meitnerium-282 may have a longer half-life of 67 seconds. The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany, first created this element in 1982. It is named after Lise Meitner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Periodic table</span> Tabular arrangement of the chemical elements ordered by atomic number

The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the elements, is an ordered arrangement of the chemical elements into rows ("periods") and columns ("groups"). It is an icon of chemistry and is widely used in physics and other sciences. It is a depiction of the periodic law, which states that when the elements are arranged in order of their atomic numbers an approximate recurrence of their properties is evident. The table is divided into four roughly rectangular areas called blocks. Elements in the same group tend to show similar chemical characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhenium</span> Chemical element, symbol Re and atomic number 75

Rhenium is a chemical element; it has symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-gray, heavy, third-row transition metal in group 7 of the periodic table. With an estimated average concentration of 1 part per billion (ppb), rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust. It has the third-highest melting point and second-highest boiling point of any element at 5869 K. It resembles manganese and technetium chemically and is mainly obtained as a by-product of the extraction and refinement of molybdenum and copper ores. It shows in its compounds a wide variety of oxidation states ranging from −1 to +7.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samarium</span> Chemical element, symbol Sm and atomic number 62

Samarium is a chemical element; it has symbol Sm and atomic number 62. It is a moderately hard silvery metal that slowly oxidizes in air. Being a typical member of the lanthanide series, samarium usually has the oxidation state +3. Compounds of samarium(II) are also known, most notably the monoxide SmO, monochalcogenides SmS, SmSe and SmTe, as well as samarium(II) iodide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technetium</span> Chemical element, symbol Tc and atomic number 43

Technetium is a chemical element; it has symbol Tc and atomic number 43. It is the lightest element whose isotopes are all radioactive. Technetium and promethium are the only radioactive elements whose neighbours in the sense of atomic number are both stable. All available technetium is produced as a synthetic element. Naturally occurring technetium is a spontaneous fission product in uranium ore and thorium ore, or the product of neutron capture in molybdenum ores. This silvery gray, crystalline transition metal lies between manganese and rhenium in group 7 of the periodic table, and its chemical properties are intermediate between those of both adjacent elements. The most common naturally occurring isotope is 99Tc, in traces only.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darmstadtium</span> Chemical element, symbol Ds and atomic number 110

Darmstadtium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Ds and atomic number 110. It is extremely radioactive: the most stable known isotope, darmstadtium-281, has a half-life of approximately 14 seconds. Darmstadtium was first created in 1994 by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, after which it was named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group 3 element</span> Group of chemical elements

Group 3 is the first group of transition metals in the periodic table. This group is closely related to the rare-earth elements. It contains the four elements scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), lutetium (Lu), and lawrencium (Lr). The group is also called the scandium group or scandium family after its lightest member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group 4 element</span> Group of chemical elements

Group 4 is the second group of transition metals in the periodic table. It contains the four elements titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), and rutherfordium (Rf). The group is also called the titanium group or titanium family after its lightest member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Heinrich Klaproth</span> German chemist (1743–1817)

Martin Heinrich Klaproth was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university. His shop became the second-largest apothecary in Berlin, and the most productive artisanal chemical research center in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group 7 element</span> Group of chemical elements

Group 7, numbered by IUPAC nomenclature, is a group of elements in the periodic table. It contains manganese (Mn), technetium (Tc), rhenium (Re) and bohrium (Bh). This group lies in the d-block of the periodic table, and are hence transition metals. This group is sometimes called the manganese group or manganese family after its lightest member; however, the group itself has not acquired a trivial name because it belongs to the broader grouping of the transition metals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group 10 element</span> Group of chemical elements

Group 10, numbered by current IUPAC style, is the group of chemical elements in the periodic table that consists of nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and darmstadtium (Ds). All are d-block transition metals. All known isotopes of darmstadtium are radioactive with short half-lives, and are not known to occur in nature; only minute quantities have been synthesized in laboratories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the periodic table</span> Development of the table of chemical elements

The periodic table is an arrangement of the chemical elements, structured by their atomic number, electron configuration and recurring chemical properties. In the basic form, elements are presented in order of increasing atomic number, in the reading sequence. Then, rows and columns are created by starting new rows and inserting blank cells, so that rows (periods) and columns (groups) show elements with recurring properties. For example, all elements in group (column) 18 are noble gases that are largely—though not completely—unreactive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Rose</span> German mineralogist and analytical chemist (1795–1864)

Heinrich Rose was a German mineralogist and analytical chemist. He was the brother of the mineralogist Gustav Rose and a son of Valentin Rose. Rose's early works on phosphorescence were noted in the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1821, and on the strength of these works, he was elected privatdozent at the University of Berlin from 1822, then Professor from 1832.

Pelopium was the proposed name for a new element found by the chemist Heinrich Rose in 1845. The name derived from the Greek king and later god Pelops, son of Tantalus. During the analysis of the mineral tantalite, he concluded that it does contain an element similar to niobium and tantalum. The similar reactivity of niobium and tantalum complicated preparation of pure samples and therefore several new elements were proposed, which were later found to be mixtures of niobium and tantalum.

Decipium was the proposed name for a new chemical element isolated by Marc Delafontaine from the mineral samarskite. He published his discovery in 1878 and later published a follow-up paper in 1881.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ida Noddack</span> German chemist (1896–1978)

Ida Noddack, néeTacke, was a German chemist and physicist. In 1934 she was the first to mention the idea later named nuclear fission. With her husband Walter Noddack, and Otto Berg, she discovered element 75, rhenium. She was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Wasium was the suggested name of a chemical element found by J. F. Bahr. The name was derived from the House of Vasa the Royal House of Sweden.

References

  1. I.e. the spectrum of highly-ionised iron being identified as Coronium.
  1. Ryden, Barbara; Pogge, Richard. "Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium".
  2. 1 2 Element name etymologies
  3. 1 2 Fermi, Enrico (December 12, 1938). "Artificial radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment" (PDF). Nobel Lecture. pp. 416–417.
  4. Linnemann, Eduard (1886). "Austrium, ein neues metallisches Element". Monatshefte für Chemie . 7 (1): 121. doi:10.1007/BF01516564. S2CID   97322406.
  5. Baskerville, Charles (1901). "On the Existence of a new Element associated with Thorium". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 23 (10): 761–764. doi:10.1021/ja02036a004.
  6. Kern, Serge (1877). "On a new metal, davyum". Philos. Mag. Series 5. 4 (23): 158–159. doi:10.1080/14786447708639315.
  7. Delafontaine, Marc (1878). "Sur le décepium, métal nouveau de la samarskite". Journal de pharmacie et de chimie. 28: 540.
  8. Yoshihara, H. K. (2004). "Discovery of a new element 'nipponiumʼ: re-evaluation of pioneering works of Masataka Ogawa and his son Eijiro Ogawa". Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy. 59 (8): 1305–1310. Bibcode:2004AcSpe..59.1305Y. doi:10.1016/j.sab.2003.12.027.
  9. Rose, Heinrich (1846). "On a new metal, pelopium, contained in the Bavarian tantalite". Philos. Mag. Series 3. 29 (195): 409–416. doi:10.1080/14786444608645529.
  10. Fontani, Marco (2005-09-10). "The Twilight of the Naturally-Occurring Elements: Moldavium (Ml), Sequanium (Sq) and Dor (Do)". International Conference on the History of Chemistry. Lisbon. pp. 1–8. Archived from the original on 2006-02-24.
  11. Delafontaine, M. (1864). "Ueber das Wasium". Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie. 131 (3): 368–372. doi:10.1002/jlac.18641310316.