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What the name
means: Compounds containing Boron
were used by the ancient civilizations of
Arabia, Persia, Egypt, Rome and China. The
ancient names for these ores were Buraq
(Arabic), Burah (Persian) and Bor
(Turkish). The Roman name for borax ores
was borum.
Who
identified
boron? In 1808 various chemists, Sir
Humphry Davy (UK), Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac,
and Louis Jacques Thénard (France) isolated
a chemical they called boracium
(Davy) and bore (Gay-Lussac and
Thénard). None of these scientist realised
that they had found a new element. It
wasn’t until 1824 that the Swedish chemist,
Jöns Jakob Berzelius, recognised the
chemical as an element.
About boron:
Boron is never found as an element
in nature. It is abundant in borate rocks.
Boron is classed as a semi-metal or
metalloid. This means that it can sometimes
act as a metal, even though it mostly acts
like a non-metal. It is found in the
vertical group 3 in the periodic table. |
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