Adapted from an image by Rafael Ximeno y Planes (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
1764–1849
Andrés Manuel del Río
Discovered vanadium in 1801.
Element
23VVanadium
1801
Andrés Manuel del Río, a professor in Mexico City, found a new metal in a lead ore in 1801, but French chemists told him it was only chromium and he withdrew his claim. Nils Sefström found it again in 1831 and named it vanadium, after the Norse goddess Vanadis.
Keep exploring
Where the dates and stories on this page come from; each event on the timeline links to its own source.
- Andrés Manuel del RíoEncyclopaedia Britannica
- VanadiumRoyal Society of Chemistry
- Andrés Manuel del RíoWikipedia