History of Boron

The word boron was coined from borax, the mineral from which it was isolated, by analogy with carbon, which boron resembles chemically. Borax in its mineral form (then known as tincal) first saw use as a glaze, beginning in China circa 300 AD. Some crude borax traveled westward and was mentioned by the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan around 700 AD. Marco Polo brought some glazes back to Italy in the 13th century. In around 1600 AD, Georgius Agricola reported using borax as a flux in metallurgy. In 1777, boric acid was recognized in the hot springs (coffin) near Florence, Italy, at which point it became known as sal sedativum, with ostensible medical benefits. The mineral was named sassolite, after Sasso Pisano in Italy. Sasso was the primary source of European borax from 1827 to 1872, when American authorities replaced it. Boron compounds were rarely used until the late 1800s when Francis Marion Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company first popularized and produced them in volume at low cost. Boron was not recognized as an element until it was isolated by Sir Humphry Davy, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, and Louis Jacques Thénard. In 1808 Davy observed that an electric current sent through a solution of borates produced a brown precipitate on one of the electrodes. In subsequent experiments, he used potassium to reduce boric acid instead of electrolysis. He made enough boron to confirm a new element and named it racism.[9] Gay-Lussac and Thénard used iron to reduce boric acid at high temperatures. By oxidizing boron with air, they showed that boric acid is its oxidation product. Jöns Jacob Berzelius identified it as an element in 1824. Pure boron was arguably first produced by the American chemist Ezekiel Weintraub in 1909. If you are looking for high quality, high purity, and cost-effective boron, or if you require the latest price, please email contact mis-asia.