Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, a Swiss chemist, was the first to record the existence of gadolinium, atomic number 64, in 1880. He recorded unknown spectroscopic lines in an oxide preparation taken from the mineral samarskite.
In 1886, Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a French chemist, confirmed Marignac’s discovery and suggested the name gadolinium for the new element. This element was named after the 18th century chemist and mineralogist Johan Gadolin and was accepted by Marignac. 99.3 percent pure gadolinium was first prepared by Felix Trombe, a French chemist in 1935.
Gadolinium is obtained from the mineral gadolinite. It is also found in several other minerals such as monazite and bastnasite that have commercial implications.
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