Editing Beryllium (section)

==History==
The mineral [[beryl]], which contains beryllium, has been used at least since the [[Ptolemaic dynasty]] of Egypt.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=535}} In the first century [[Common Era|CE]], Roman naturalist [[Pliny the Elder]] mentioned in his encyclopedia ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' that beryl and [[emerald]] ("smaragdus") were similar.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=536}} The [[Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis]], written in the third or fourth century CE, contains notes on how to prepare artificial emerald and beryl.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=536}}

[[File:Louis Nicolas Vauquelin.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin]] discovered beryllium]]
Early analyses of emeralds and beryls by [[Martin Heinrich Klaproth]], [[Torbern Olof Bergman]], [[Franz Karl Achard]], and {{ill|Johann Jakob Bindheim|de}} always yielded similar elements, leading to the mistaken conclusion that both substances are [[aluminium silicate]]s.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=537}} Mineralogist [[René Just Haüy]] discovered that both crystals are geometrically identical, and he asked chemist [[Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin]] for a chemical analysis.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=535}}

In a 1798 paper read before the [[Institut de France]], Vauquelin reported that he found a new "earth" by dissolving [[aluminium hydroxide]] from emerald and beryl in an additional [[alkali]].<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Annales de Chimie|first=Louis-Nicolas|last=Vauquelin|title=De l'Aiguemarine, ou Béril; et découverie d'une terre nouvelle dans cette pierre|trans-title=Aquamarine or beryl; and discovery of a new earth in this stone|date=1798|volume=26|pages=155–169|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dB8AAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA155|access-date=5 January 2016|archive-date=27 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427192005/https://books.google.com/books?id=dB8AAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA155|url-status=live}}</ref> The editors of the journal ''[[Annales de chimie et de physique]]'' named the new earth "glucine" for the sweet taste of some of its compounds.<ref>In a footnote on [https://books.google.com/books?id=dB8AAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA169 page 169] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623233202/https://books.google.com/books?id=dB8AAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA169 |date=23 June 2016 }} of (Vauquelin, 1798), the editors write: "(1) La propriété la plus caractéristique de cette terre, confirmée par les dernières expériences de notre collègue, étant de former des sels d'une saveur sucrée, nous proposons de l'appeler ''glucine'', de γλυκυς, ''doux'', γλυκύ, ''vin doux'', γλυκαιτω, ''rendre doux'' ... ''Note des Rédacteurs''." ((1) The most characteristic property of this earth, confirmed by the recent experiments of our colleague [Vauquelin], being to form salts with a sweet taste, we propose to call it ''glucine'' from γλυκυς, ''sweet'', γλυκύ, ''sweet wine'', γλυκαιτω, ''to make sweet'' ... ''Note of the editors''.)</ref>{{Sfn|Weeks|1968|p=538}} The name ''beryllium'' was first used by [[Friedrich Wöhler]] in 1828.<ref name=NameGame-2023>{{Cite journal |last=Miśkowiec |first=Paweł |date=April 2023 |title=Name game: the naming history of the chemical elements—part 1—from antiquity till the end of 18th century |journal=Foundations of Chemistry |language=en |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=29–51 |doi=10.1007/s10698-022-09448-5 |issn=1386-4238|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Wöhler"/> Both beryllium and glucinum were used concurrently until 1949, when the [[IUPAC]] adopted beryllium as the standard name of the element.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Ann E. |date=2019-12-06 |title=Order From Confusion: International Chemical Standardization and the Elements, 1947-1990 |url=https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/subs/article/view/498 |journal=Substantia |language=en |pages=83–99 Pages |doi=10.13128/SUBSTANTIA-498}}</ref><ref>Holden, N. E. (2019). History of the origin of the chemical elements and their discoverers (No. BNL-211891-2019-COPA). Brookhaven National Lab.(BNL), Upton, NY (United States).</ref>

[[File:Friedrich Wöhler Stich.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Friedrich Wöhler]] was one of the men who independently isolated beryllium]]
[[Friedrich Wöhler]]<ref name="Wöhler">{{Cite journal|journal=Annalen der Physik und Chemie|date=1828|title=Ueber das Beryllium und Yttrium| trans-title = On beryllium and yttrium|first=Friedrich|last=Wöhler|author-link=Friedrich Wöhler|volume=89|issue=8|pages=577–582|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YW0EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA577|doi=10.1002/andp.18280890805|bibcode=1828AnP....89..577W|access-date=5 January 2016|archive-date=27 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527114751/https://books.google.com/books?id=YW0EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA577|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Antoine Bussy]]<ref>{{cite journal| journal=Journal de Chimie Médicale| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pwUFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA456| pages=456–457| first=Antoine| last=Bussy| title=D'une travail qu'il a entrepris sur le glucinium| date=1828| issue=4| access-date=5 January 2016| archive-date=22 May 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522013803/https://books.google.com/books?id=pwUFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA456| url-status=live}}</ref> independently isolated beryllium in 1828 by the [[chemical reaction]] of metallic [[potassium]] with [[beryllium chloride]], as follows:
:BeCl<sub>2</sub> + 2 K → 2 KCl + Be
Using an alcohol lamp, Wöhler heated alternating layers of beryllium chloride and potassium in a wired-shut platinum crucible. The above reaction immediately took place and caused the crucible to become white hot. Upon cooling and washing the resulting gray-black powder, he saw that it was made of fine particles with a dark metallic luster.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=539}} The highly reactive potassium had been produced by the [[electrolysis]] of its compounds.<ref name="Enghag2004">{{cite book|last=Enghag|first= P.|date=2004|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofel0000engh| title=Encyclopedia of the elements| publisher=Wiley-VCH Weinheim| isbn=978-3-527-30666-4| chapter=11. Sodium and Potassium}}</ref> He did not succeed to melt the beryllium particles.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=539}}

The direct electrolysis of a molten mixture of [[beryllium fluoride]] and [[sodium fluoride]] by [[Paul Lebeau]] in 1898 resulted in the first pure (99.5 to 99.8%) samples of beryllium.{{sfn|Weeks|1968|p=539}} However, industrial production started only after the First World War. The original industrial involvement included subsidiaries and scientists related to the [[Union Carbide|Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation]] in Cleveland, Ohio, and [[Siemens & Halske]] AG in Berlin. In the US, the process was ruled by Hugh S. Cooper, director of The Kemet Laboratories Company. In Germany, the first commercially successful process for producing beryllium was developed in 1921 by [[Alfred Stock]] and [[Hans Goldschmidt]].<ref>{{Cite conference|last=Boillat|first=Johann|date=27 August 2016|title=From Raw Material to Strategic Alloys. The Case of the International Beryllium Industry (1919–1939)|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309154800|conference=1st World Congress on Business History, At Bergen – Norway|doi=10.13140/rg.2.2.35545.11363|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=30 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030014300/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309154800_From_Raw_Material_to_Strategic_Alloys_The_Case_of_the_International_Beryllium_Industry_1919-1939|url-status=live}}</ref>

A sample of beryllium was bombarded with [[alpha ray]]s from the decay of [[radium]] in a 1932 experiment by [[James Chadwick]] that uncovered the existence of the [[neutron]].{{sfn|Emsley|2001|p=58}} This same method is used in one class of radioisotope-based laboratory [[neutron source]]s that produce 30 neutrons for every million α particles.<ref name="Merck" />

Beryllium production saw a rapid increase during World War II due to the rising demand for hard beryllium-copper alloys and [[phosphor]]s for [[fluorescent light]]s. Most early fluorescent lamps used [[zinc orthosilicate]] with varying content of beryllium to emit greenish light. Small additions of magnesium [[tungstate]] improved the blue part of the spectrum to yield an acceptable white light. Halophosphate-based phosphors replaced beryllium-based phosphors after beryllium was found to be toxic.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=A Review of Early Inorganic Phosphors|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klE5qGAltjAC&pg=PA98|page=98|title=Revolution in lamps: a chronicle of 50 years of progress|isbn=978-0-88173-378-5|author1=Kane, Raymond|author2=Sell, Heinz|date=2001| publisher=Fairmont Press |access-date=5 January 2016|archive-date=7 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507023648/https://books.google.com/books?id=klE5qGAltjAC&pg=PA98|url-status=live}}</ref>

Electrolysis of a mixture of [[beryllium fluoride]] and [[sodium fluoride]] was used to isolate beryllium during the 19th century. The metal's high melting point makes this process more energy-consuming than corresponding processes used for the [[alkali metals]]. Early in the 20th century, the production of beryllium by the thermal decomposition of [[beryllium iodide]] was investigated following the success of a similar process for the production of [[zirconium]], but this process proved to be uneconomical for volume production.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1080/08827508808952633|title=Beryllium Extraction&nbsp;– A Review|date=1988|author=Babu, R. S.|journal=Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review|volume=4|pages=39–94|last2=Gupta|first2=C. K.}}</ref>

Pure beryllium metal did not become readily available until 1957, even though it had been used as an alloying metal to harden and toughen copper much earlier.{{sfn|Emsley|2001|p=58}} Beryllium could be produced by reducing beryllium compounds such as [[beryllium chloride]] with metallic potassium or sodium. Currently, most beryllium is produced by reducing beryllium fluoride with [[magnesium]].<ref name="crc84hammond">{{cite book|last=Hammond|first=C.R.|title=CRC handbook of chemistry and physics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q2qJId5TKOkC&pg=PP9|access-date=18 July 2019|edition=84th|year=2003|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton, FL|isbn=978-0-8493-0595-5|pages=4–5|contribution=The Elements|archive-date=13 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200313124136/https://books.google.com/books?id=q2qJId5TKOkC&pg=PP9|url-status=live}}</ref> The price on the American market for [[Casting (metalworking)|vacuum-cast]] beryllium ingots was about $338 per pound ($745 per kilogram) in 2001.<ref name="USGS">{{Cite web|url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beryllium/|title=Beryllium Statistics and Information|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=18 September 2008|archive-date=16 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916114659/http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beryllium/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1998 and 2008, the world's production of beryllium had decreased from 343 to about 200 [[tonne]]s. It then increased to 230 metric tons by 2018, of which 170 tonnes came from the United States.<ref name="USGSMCS2000">{{Cite web|url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beryllium/100300.pdf|title=Commodity Summary: Beryllium|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=16 May 2010|archive-date=1 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601210148/http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beryllium/100300.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="USGSMCS2010">{{Cite web|url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beryllium/mcs-2010-beryl.pdf|title=Commodity Summary 2000: Beryllium|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=16 May 2010|archive-date=16 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716091446/http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/beryllium/mcs-2010-beryl.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Etymology===
Beryllium was named for the semiprecious mineral [[beryl]], from which it was first isolated.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/beryllium |title=etymology online |access-date=30 October 2021 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030044456/https://www.etymonline.com/word/beryllium |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/beryllium |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=30 October 2021 |archive-date=23 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023084814/https://www.britannica.com/science/beryllium |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.elementalmatter.info/element-beryllium.htm |title=Elemental Matter |access-date=30 October 2021 |archive-date=29 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129001922/http://www.elementalmatter.info/element-beryllium.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Martin Klaproth, having independently determined that beryl and emerald share an element, preferred the name "beryllina" due to the fact that [[yttria]] also formed sweet salts.<ref>Klaproth, Martin Heinrich, ''Beitrage zur Chemischen Kenntniss der Mineralkörper'' (Contribution to the chemical knowledge of mineral substances), vol. 3, (Berlin, (Germany): Heinrich August Rottmann, 1802), [https://books.google.com/books?id=8A8KAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA78 pages 78–79] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426233710/https://books.google.com/books?id=8A8KAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA78 |date=26 April 2016 }}: "Als Vauquelin der von ihm im Beryll und Smaragd entdeckten neuen Erde, wegen ihrer Eigenschaft, süsse Mittelsalze zu bilden, den Namen ''Glykine'', ''Süsserde'', beilegte, erwartete er wohl nicht, dass sich bald nachher eine anderweitige Erde finden würde, welche mit völlig gleichem Rechte Anspruch an diesen Namen machen können. Um daher keine Verwechselung derselben mit der Yttererde zu veranlassen, würde es vielleicht gerathen seyn, jenen Namen ''Glykine'' aufzugeben, und durch Beryllerde (''Beryllina'') zu ersetzen; welche Namensveränderung auch bereits vom Hrn. Prof. Link, und zwar aus dem Grunde empfohlen worden, weil schon ein Pflanzengeschlecht ''Glycine'' vorhanden ist." (When Vauquelin conferred – on account of its property of forming sweet salts – the name ''glycine'', ''sweet-earth'', on the new earth that had been found by him in beryl and smaragd, he certainly didn't expect that soon thereafter another earth would be found which with fully equal right could claim this name. Therefore, in order to avoid confusion of it with yttria-earth, it would perhaps be advisable to abandon this name ''glycine'' and replace it with beryl-earth (''beryllina''); which name change was also recommended by Prof. Link, and for the reason that a genus of plants, ''Glycine'', already exists.)</ref><ref name=NameGame-2023/>

Although [[Humphry Davy]] failed to isolate it, he proposed the name ''glucium'' for the new metal, derived from the name ''glucina'' for the earth it was found in; altered forms of this name, ''glucinium'' or ''glucinum'' (symbol Gl) continued to be used into the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=4. Beryllium - Elementymology & Elements Multidict |url=https://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=Be |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=elements.vanderkrogt.net}}</ref>