Element discovery timeline: when each element was found

The timeline places all 118 elements in the era they were discovered, from metals known in ancient times to superheavy elements made in the 21st century. Each entry links to the element's own page.

  1. Ancient10
    Carbon Sulfur Iron Copper Silver Tin Antimony Gold Mercury Lead
  2. < 17002
    Arsenic 1250 Phosphorus 1669
  3. 1700–179921
    Cobalt 1735 Platinum 1735 Zinc 1746 Nickel 1751 Bismuth 1753 Magnesium 1755 Hydrogen 1766 Nitrogen 1772 Oxygen 1774 Chlorine 1774 Manganese 1774 Molybdenum 1778 Tellurium 1782 Tungsten 1783 Zirconium 1789 Uranium 1789 Strontium 1790 Titanium 1791 Yttrium 1794 Chromium 1797 Beryllium 1798
  4. 1800–184925
    Vanadium 1801 Niobium 1801 Palladium 1802 Tantalum 1802 Cerium 1803 Osmium 1803 Iridium 1803 Rhodium 1804 Sodium 1807 Potassium 1807 Boron 1808 Calcium 1808 Barium 1808 Iodine 1811 Lithium 1817 Selenium 1817 Cadmium 1817 Silicon 1823 Aluminum 1825 Bromine 1826 Thorium 1829 Lanthanum 1839 Terbium 1843 Erbium 1843 Ruthenium 1844
  5. 1850–189925
    Cesium 1860 Rubidium 1861 Thallium 1861 Indium 1863 Helium 1868 Gallium 1875 Holmium 1878 Ytterbium 1878 Scandium 1879 Samarium 1879 Thulium 1879 Gadolinium 1880 Praseodymium 1885 Neodymium 1885 Fluorine 1886 Germanium 1886 Dysprosium 1886 Argon 1894 Neon 1898 Krypton 1898 Xenon 1898 Polonium 1898 Radium 1898 Radon 1899 Actinium 1899
  6. 1900–194914
    Europium 1901 Lutetium 1907 Protactinium 1913 Hafnium 1923 Rhenium 1925 Technetium 1937 Francium 1939 Astatine 1940 Neptunium 1940 Plutonium 1940 Americium 1944 Curium 1944 Promethium 1945 Berkelium 1949
  7. 1950–199916
    Californium 1950 Einsteinium 1952 Fermium 1952 Mendelevium 1955 Nobelium 1958 Lawrencium 1961 Rutherfordium 1964 Dubnium 1967 Seaborgium 1974 Bohrium 1981 Meitnerium 1982 Hassium 1984 Darmstadtium 1994 Roentgenium 1994 Copernicium 1996 Flerovium 1999
  8. 2000+5
    Livermorium 2000 Oganesson 2002 Moscovium 2003 Nihonium 2004 Tennessine 2010

How to read the timeline

Elements are grouped by era and sorted by the year they were first identified or isolated. Elements marked Ancient were in use before anyone recorded a discovery, so they have no single discoverer or date. Dates can differ between sources, because some elements were recognized years before anyone isolated them in pure form.

Eras of discovery

Ten elements on the timeline were known in ancient times: carbon, sulfur, iron, copper, silver, tin, antimony, gold, mercury and lead. In the 1700s, chemists studying gases identified hydrogen (1766), nitrogen (1772), and oxygen and chlorine (1774).

In the early 1800s, electrolysis let Humphry Davy isolate sodium and potassium (1807) and calcium and barium (1808). Spectroscopy then revealed cesium (1860), rubidium (1861) and helium, seen in sunlight in 1868. In the 1890s, William Ramsay and his colleagues found the other noble gases, and Marie and Pierre Curie discovered polonium and radium in 1898.

Technetium (1937) was the first element made artificially. Nearly every element found since was first produced in a nuclear reactor, a particle accelerator or, for einsteinium and fermium, the debris of a 1952 hydrogen bomb test.

Worked example: Mendeleev's missing elements

When Dmitri Mendeleev published his periodic table in 1869, he left gaps for elements nobody had found. Scan the years after 1869 and three of them appear: gallium in 1875, scandium in 1879 and germanium in 1886. Each closely matched the properties he had predicted, which helped convince chemists that his periodic law was right.

FAQ

What was the first element discovered?

Nobody knows, because gold, copper, iron, carbon and sulfur were used thousands of years before records were kept. The first element with a known discoverer is usually said to be phosphorus, isolated by Hennig Brand in 1669.

What is the most recently discovered element?

Tennessine, element 117, first made in 2010 by a Russian–American team. IUPAC approved its name, along with nihonium, moscovium and oganesson, in 2016, completing the seventh row of the periodic table.

How many elements were discovered in the 1800s?

The timeline places 50 elements between 1800 and 1899, more than in any other century. Electrolysis, spectroscopy and the hunt for Mendeleev's missing elements all drove the rush.

When were the noble gases discovered?

Helium was spotted in the Sun's spectrum in 1868, argon was isolated in 1894, and neon, krypton and xenon followed in 1898. Radon was identified around 1899 to 1900, and oganesson, first made in 2002, completed group 18.