Page "Neodymium" Paragraph 37

Neodymium was discovered by Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach, an Austrian chemist, in Vienna in 1885.

He separated neodymium, as well as the element praseodymium, from a material known as didymium by means of fractional crystallization of the double ammonium nitrate tetrahydrates from nitric acid, while following the separation by spectroscopic analysis ; however, it was not isolated in relatively pure form until 1925.

The name neodymium is derived from the Greek words neos ( νέος ), new, and didymos ( διδύμος ), twin.