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in your element
Tantalizing tantalum
Giovanni Baccolo relates tales of tantalum, an element known, and named, for its inertness, yet one that holds some surprises, such as a naturally occurring nuclear isomer.
Element 73 was rst extracted from mineral samples and described in 1802 by the Swedish chemist Anders Ekeberg.
He chose the name tantalum because when placed in the midst of acids it is incapable of taking any of them up and saturating itself with them, in a manner reminiscent of the Greek mythological king Tantalus (pictured) who couldnt eat or drink anything despite being surrounded by food and water1.
For over six decades tantalum and its neighbour in the periodic table, niobium discovered in 1801by Charles Hatchett and initially named columbium were thought to be one and the same. Theyshare very similar chemical and physical properties, and are always found togetherin nature. The discoveries of columbium, tantalum, pelopium, niobium and ilmenium were all repeatedly claimed between 1801 and 1866, however, these proved to be just tantalum, niobium and mixtures of the two.
It was the French scientistJean Charles Galissard de Marignac who rst succeeded in separating tantalumfrom niobium, by exploiting the dierent solubilities of their uorinated compounds2.
Tantalum belongs to the refractory metals along with...