Indium - History

History

In 1863, the German chemists Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymous Theodor Richter were testing ores from the mines around Freiberg, Saxony. They dissolved the minerals pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena and sphalerite in hydrochloric acid and distilled raw zinc chloride. As it was known that ores from that region sometimes contain thallium they searched for the green emission lines with spectroscopy. The green lines were absent but a blue line was present in the spectrum. As no element was known with a bright blue emission they concluded that a new element was present in the minerals. They named the element with the blue spectral line indium, from the indigo color seen in its spectrum. Richter went on to isolate the metal in 1864. At the World Fair 1867 an ingot of 0.5 kg (1.1 lb) was presented.

In 1924, indium was found to have a valuable ability to stabilize non-ferrous metals, which was the first significant use for the element. It took until 1936 for the U.S. Bureau of Mines to list indium as a commodity, and even in early the 1950s only very limited applications for indium were known, the most important of which was making light-emitting diodes and coating bearings for aircraft engines during World War II. The start of production of indium-containing semiconductors started in 1952. The development and widespread use of indium-containing nuclear control rods increased demand during the 1970s, and the use of indium tin oxide in liquid crystal displays increased and became the major application by 1992.