Nils Gabriel Sefström Explained

Nils Gabriel Sefström
Birth Date:	1787 6, df=yes
Birth Place:	Ilsbo, Hälsingland, Sweden
Nationality:	Swedish
Death Place:	Stockholm, Sweden
Doctoral Advisor:	Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Known For:	Rediscovery of vanadium

Nils Gabriel Sefström (2 June 1787  - 30 November 1845) was a Swedish chemist. Sefström was a student of Berzelius and, when studying the brittleness of steel in 1830, he rediscovered a new chemical element, to which he gave the name vanadium.^[1]

Vanadium was first discovered by the Spanish-Mexican mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río in 1801. He named it erythronium. Friedrich Wöhler later confirmed that vanadium and erythronium were the same substance.^[2]

Sefström was member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1815.

The Spitzbergen glacier Sefströmbreen,^[3] and the mountain ridge of Sefströmkammen, are named after him.^[4]

Further reading

• Sjoberg, Sven Gosta . Nils Gabriel Sefstrom and the Discovery of Vanadium . Journal of Chemical Education . 28 . 6 . 294 - 296 . 10.1021/ed028p294 . 1951 . 1951JChEd..28..294S . - subscription required
• Weeks, Mary Elvira . Mary Elvira Weeks. The Discovery of the Elements: VII. Columbium, Tantalum, and Vanadium . Journal of Chemical Education . 9 . 5 . 863 - 884 . 10.1021/ed009p863 . 1932 . 1932JChEd...9..863W . - subscription required
• Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon: Sefström, Nils Gabriel - in Swedish

Notes and References

1. Ueber das Vanadin, ein neues Metall, gefunden im Stangeneisen von Eckersholm, einer Eisenhütte, die ihr Erz von Taberg in Småland bezieht . N. G. Sefström . . 97 . 1 . 43 - 49 . 1831 . 10.1002/andp.18310970103 . 1831AnP....97...43S .
2. The Road to Chemical Names and Eponyms: Discovery, Priority, and Credit . Pedro Cintas . Angewandte Chemie International Edition . 43 . 44 . 5888 - 5894 . 2004 . 10.1002/anie.200330074 . 15376297 .
3. Web site: Sefströmbreen (Svalbard) . . 28 January 2014 . 4 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140204022409/http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Sefstr%C3%B6mbreen . dead .
4. Web site: Sefströmkammen (Svalbard) . . 28 January 2014 . 1 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201230010/http://placenames.npolar.no/stadnamn/Sefstr%C3%B6mkammen . dead .