Properties

Atomic Number	41
CAS Registry Number	03/01/40
Chemical Symbol	Nb

History

The atomic number is 41 and the chemical symbol is Nb. The name derives from the Greek mythological character Niobe who was the daughter of Tantalus (see the element tantalum) since the elements niobium and tantalum were originally thought to be identical elements. Niobium was discovered in a black mineral from America called columbite by the British chemist and manufacturer Charles Hatchett in 1801 and he called the element columbium since the mineral was discovered in America. A year later in 1802 the element tantalum was discovered. In 1809 the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston claimed that the elements columbium and tantalum were identical. Forty years later the Geiinan chemist and pharmacist Heinrich Rose determined from their acids that columbium and tantalum were two different elements in 1846 and gave the name niobium to columbium because it was so difficult to distinguish it from tantalum. Rose claimed that his niobium had a larger atomic weight than tantalum. Finally in 1866 the Swiss chemist Jean-Charles Galissard de Marignac separated these elements. For more than a century the name columbium continued to be used in America and niobium in Europe until IUPAC information. Thes CNIC adopted the name niobium in 1949 based on consideration of prevailing usage. Niobium was first isolated by the chemist C. W. Blomstrand in 1846.

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