Properties

Atomic Number	58
CAS Registry Number	7440-45-1
Chemical Symbol	Ce

History

The atomic number is 58 and the chemical symbol is Ce. The name which was originally cererium but was shortened to cerium derives from the planetoid Ceres which was discovered by the Italian astronomer Guiseppe Piazzi in 1801 and named for Ceres the Roman goddess of agriculture. Two years later in 1803 the element was discovered by the German chemist Martin-Heinrich Klaproth who called the element ochroite because of its yellow color. This rare earth was independently discovered at the same time by the Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Bezelius and the Swedish minerologist Wilhelm von Hisinger who called it ceria. It was first isolated in 1875 by the American mineralogist and chemist William Frances Hillebrand and the American chemist Thomas H. Norton.

Holden, Norman E., (2004). History of the origin of the chemical elements and their discoverers. National Nuclear Data Center. Retrieved from http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/content/elements.html