Discovery of gadolinium

Gadolinium was discovered in 1880 by the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, who observed spectral lines of an unknown element in samples of the minerals samarskite and didymium. The French chemist Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran separated the oxide in 1886 and gave the element its name, in honour of the mineral gadolinite, which itself honoured the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin, a pioneer in the study of rare earth elements. Gadolinium is a silvery metal of the rare earth group, which is strongly magnetic at low temperatures and absorbs neutrons very efficiently. Its compounds are used as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging, where they sharpen the images of tissue, as well as in phosphors for X-ray screens and in some nuclear reactor controls.

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