Beryllium/ Be
By: Mya Aviles
What is Beryllium
Beryllium was discovered in France by a man named Rene Hauy in 1798. He saw similarities in crystal structures and properties of beryl and emerald. Rene wondered if beryl and emerald could make the same elements even though they were different colors. Hauy met up with a French chemist ,Louis Vauqelin, who was an analysis, and asked him to take a look. Louis Vauquelin made a sweet-tasting substance with both the emerald and beryl. They changed this sweet-tasting substance beryllia ,BeO, because of how highly toxic berylliums compounds are.
Pure beryllium was isolated from its salts in 1828 by Friederich Wohler. Wohler became unhappy with the name the new element was given so he preferred calling it beryllium from the Greek word "beryllos." Martin Klaproth ,Wohler's countryman, pointed out that ytria forms sweet salts, and would less likely cause confusion. Finally in 1949 beryllium was the element's official name decided by IUPAC. This element played a large part in the existence of neutrons. An English Physicist , James Chadwick, bombarded a sample of beryllium with helium nuclei. He found that the sample discharged subatomic particles that had no charge, but had mass. This particle with no charge is called neutrons.