Discovery of cerium

Cerium was discovered in 1803 and 1804 by two groups working independently: the Swedish chemists Jons Jacob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger, and the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. They found a new oxide in a heavy mineral from the Bastnas mine in Sweden, later called cerite. The element was named after Ceres, the dwarf planet discovered in 1801 and named for the Roman goddess of agriculture. Cerium is the most abundant of the rare earth elements, more plentiful in the Earth's crust than copper or lead. It is a soft, silvery metal that ignites easily when scratched, which led to its use in the flints of cigarette lighters. Cerium oxide is widely used for polishing glass and lenses and in catalytic converters.

Open on the timeline