Promethium: historical information

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Promethium was discovered by J. A. Marinsky, Lawrence Glendenin, Charles D. Coryell at 1945 in United States. Origin of name: named after "Prometheus" in Greek mythology, who stole fire from the gods

Earlt claims to the discovery of promethium date back to 1924 but these appear have been substantiated. A group at Ohio State University (USA) claimed element 61 in experiments involving its synthesis in a cyclotron, but again the evidence did not satisfy everyone. In 1947, Marinsky, Glendenin, and Coryell at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA, made the first chemical identification of promethium by use of ion-exchange chromatography on residues in a nuclear reactor.

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promethium atomic number