Praseodymium: historical information

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Praseodymium was discovered by Carl F. Auer von Welsbach at 1885 in Austria. Origin of name: from the Greek words "prasios didymos" meaning "green twin"

In 1885, Carl Auer von Welsbach separated an "earth" called didymia obtained from the mineral samarskite into two earths, praseodymia and neodymia, which gave salts of different colours. The separation required the repeated fractionation of ammonium didymium nitrate.

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praseodymium atomic number