 Discovery Information
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| Who: Dirk Coster, George Hevesy |
| When: 1923 |
| Where: Denmark |
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| Name Origin
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| From Hafnia, the Latin name of Copenhagen. |
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| Sources
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| Hafnium does not exist in nature in elemental form. Obtained from the mineral zircon. |
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| Uses
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| Used in gas-filled and incandescent lamps, reactor control rods because of its ability to absorb neutrons also as a gas scavenger
in vacuum tubes.
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| It is also used in iron, titanium, niobium, tantalum and other metal alloys.
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| Notes
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| A man made radioactive element and the first transactinide element. |
| Care needs to be taken when machining hafnium because when it is divided into fine particles, it is pyrophoric and can ignite spontaneously in air.
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