Scandium History

Dmitri Mendeleev used his periodic law, in 1869, to predict the existence and some properties of three unknown elements including one he called ekaboron .

Lars Fredrick Nilson and his team, apparently unaware of that prediction in the spring of 1879, were looking for rare earth metals; using spectrum analysis he found a new element within the minerals euxenite and gadolinite. He named it Scandium, from the Latin Scandia meaning "Scandinavia", and by way of isolating the element he processed 10 kilograms of euxenite with other rare-earth residues, obtaining about 2 grams of very pure scandium oxide (Sc2O3).

Per Teodor Cleve concluded that scandium corresponded well to the hoped-for ekaboron, and notified Mendeleev of this in August.

Fischer, Brunger, and Grienelaus prepared metallic scandium for the first time in 1937, by electrolysis of a eutectic melt of potassium, lithium, and scandium chlorides at 700 to 800° C Tungsten wire in a pool of liquid zinc were the electrodes in a graphite crucible. The first pound of 99% pure scandium metal wasn't produced until 1960.