A brief history of the discovery of niobium
In 1801, British chemist Charles Hatchett discovered niobium in a sample of ore in the British Museum, sent in 1734 by John Winthrop of Connecticut, USA. Since niobium and tantalum are very similar, he initially thought they were the same substance. But he later discovered that the compound isolated from this mineral was not chromic acid but an oxide of an unknown metal. Since this mineral came from the United States discovered by Columbus, in order to commemorate its origin, Hatchet named this ore Columbite (columbium). In fact, because these two elements are very similar in nature, many people think that they are the same element. In 1809, another British chemist, William Hyde Wollaston, mistakenly classified "tantalum" and "columbium" as the same substance, believing that they were the same in all aspects except density. same.
In 1846, German chemist Heinrich Rose analyzed different tantalum and columbium ores. He found that there is another element besides tantalum, which is very close to tantalum, and put this new The element is called Niobium (Niobium is taken from the Greek mythological figure Niobe because the name of tantalum comes from Tantalos in Greek mythology, and Niobe is the daughter of Tantalos, which can better indicate the similarity between tantalum and niobium). Between 1864 and 1865, some scientific results also showed that "columbium" and "niobium" were the same elements, and the two terms were common for the next century. In 1864, Swiss chemist Wilhelm Blomstrand obtained metallic niobium for the first time by reducing chloride with hydrogen. In 1951, the naming committee of the International Association of Theoretical and Applied Chemistry officially decided to use Niobium as the official name of the element.
Niobium Industry Development
Niobium was first used in the manufacture of incandescent lamps in the early 20th century. But this application was quickly replaced by tungsten, which has a higher melting point and is more suitable for making incandescent lamps. In the 1920s, the property of niobium to increase the strength of steel was discovered, which promoted the application of niobium in the field of steel. Today, the steel industry is still the main application area of niobium. In the 1940s, the application of tantalum-niobium superalloys was developed. In the 1950s, the emergence of extraction and separation of tantalum and niobium laid the foundation for the development of the niobium industry. In 1961, American physicist Eugene Kunzler and his colleagues discovered at Bell Labs that niobium-tin alloys can continue to maintain superconductivity in the presence of strong currents and strong magnetic fields. application.
At the end of the 1970s, the world's niobium consumption reached 1000-1200 tons, and by the end of the 1980s, the consumption of niobium increased to 1600-1800 tons. According to the data released by the US Geological Survey in 2014, in 2013, the global production of niobium was about 51,000 tons, and the production was relatively concentrated. The production of niobium in Brazil and Canada alone accounted for about 98% of the total production of niobium in the world. North America and Europe are the main niobium-consuming regions, and China is also a big niobium consumer. In 2010, China's niobium consumption accounted for a quarter of the world's total consumption. At present, the niobium industry in the world has developed to a very high level in terms of beneficiation, smelting, processing technology, production scale, output, application fields, and consumption. Various niobium products are also widely used in iron and steel, superconducting materials, electronics, medical and other industries. Among them, niobium has the largest consumption in the iron and steel field, accounting for about 90% of the total global niobium consumption.
