Carl Axel Arrhenius

Not to be confused with Svante Arrhenius.

Carl Axel Arrhenius
Born(1757-03-29)29 March 1757
Stockholm, Sweden
Died20 November 1824(1824-11-20) (aged 67)
Known forDiscovery of mineral ytterbite

Carl Axel Arrhenius (29 March 1757 – 20 November 1824)[1] was a Swedish military officer, amateur geologist, and chemist. He is best known for his discovery of the mineral ytterbite (later called gadolinite) in 1787.

The discovery of ytterbite was the first step in identifying an entire group of previously unknown elements, the rare earths.[2][3] Eight stable rare earth elements were eventually extracted from ytterbite: terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, and yttrium.[4]

  1. ^ Hofberg, Herman (1906). Svenskt Biografiskt Handlexicon. Vol. 1. Sweden: A. Bonnier. p. 48. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  2. ^ Rabinovich, Daniel. "Gadolin and the Cradle of the Rare Earths". Chemistry International. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  3. ^ Eliseeva, Svetlana V.; Bünzli, Jean-Claude G. (2011). "Rare earths: jewels for functional materials of the future". New Journal of Chemistry. 35 (6): 1165. doi:10.1039/C0NJ00969E.
  4. ^ "Separation of Rare Earth Elements by Charles James". National Historic Chemical Landmarks. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 21 February 2014.