History Of The Discovery Of Tantalum

In 1802, the Swedish chemist A.G. Ekaberg, 1767~1813, while analyzing a mineral (niobium-tantalum ore) in Scandinavia, recrystallized it after generating fluoride complex salts from their acids, thus discovering a new element, which he named tantalum with reference to Tantalus, the son of the god Zeus in Greek mythology.
Because niobium and tantalum are so similar in nature, they were once thought to be the same element; in 1809, British chemist William Hyde Wollaston compared niobium and tantalum oxides separately, and although he came up with different density values, he considered them to be exactly the same substance.

By 1844, the German chemist Heinrich Rose, 1795~1864, refuted the conclusion that tantalum and niobium were the same element and chemically determined that they were two different elements. He named the two elements "Niobium" and "Pelopium" after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, the goddess of tears and her son Pelops in Greek mythology.
In 1864, Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand, Henri Edin St. Clair de Ville and Louis Joseph Troost definitively proved that tantalum and niobium were two different chemical elements and determined the chemical formulas for a number of related compounds.
In the same year, de Marigny heated tantalum chloride in a hydrogen atmosphere, thus making tantalum metal for the first time by a reduction reaction. Earlier refinements of tantalum contained high levels of impurities, and the first pure tantalum was produced by Werner von Bolton in 1903.
Scientists were the first to extract tantalum (potassium heptafluorotantalate) from niobium (potassium pentafluorooxyniobate monohydrate) by means of layered crystallization. This method was discovered by de Marigny in 1866. Today, scientists use solvent extraction of tantalum solutions containing fluoride.