Johan August Arfwedson
Swedish chemist
1792 CE to 1841 CE
Johan August Arfwedson (12 January 1792 – 28 October 1841) was a Swedish chemist who discovers the chemical element lithium in 1817 by isolating it as a salt.
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Johan August Arfvedson, a Swedish chemist, discovers a new element, lithium, in 1817 during an analysis of petalite ore, an ore now recognized to be LiAl(Si2O5)2, taken from the Swedish island of Utü.
The element's name is derived from Greek lithos (stony; apparently because it is discovered from a mineral source whereas the other two common group 1 elements, sodium and potassium, were discovered from plant sources).
He subsequently discovers lithium in the minerals spodumene and lepidolite.
Christian Gmelin observes in 1818 that salts of lithium color flames bright red.
Neither Gmelin nor Johan August Arfwedson, in attempting reductions by heating the oxide with iron or carbon, succeed in isolating the element itself from its salts.
Chemist William Thomas Brande and electrochemist Sir Humphry Davy later isolate the metal in pure form, producing a minute quantity by the electrolysis of lithium oxide (or lithium carbonate?).