Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets, a Russian mining engineer, was instrumental in the discovery of a particular mineral which was named ‘samarskite’ after his own name. Our element, samarium, was first extracted from this mineral, and thus, is named after it. Samarsky-Bykhovets may be the first person to be the namesake of an element, although indirectly.
Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a French chemist, discovered the element in 1879. The element is moderately hard and greyish white in colour. It is fairly stable in the air and has a bright silver sheen. Samarium is found in many minerals, including monazite and bastnasite, which are commercially desirable sources. While samarium has not been isolated in its pure form until recently, mischmetal, an alloy mix containing about 1 per cent of samarium metal, has been in use for a long time.
Samarium forms a compound with cobalt and this alloy is a powerful permanent magnet. It has the highest resistance to demagnetization of any known material. The element is used as a neutron absorber in nuclear reactors and in infrared absorbing glass.
The atomic number of samarium is 62, and it is represented as Sm.
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