Born in Owosso, Mich., Hopkins began teaching in the Menominee, Mich., public schools in 1897. He received a Ph.D. in 1906 with H. N. Morse at Johns Hopkins University and then held various academic posts before joining the Illinois faculty in 1912. At Illinois, Hopkins worked with Charles Balke, who was conducting a series of researches on beryllium, yttrium, columbium (now called niobium), tantalum, and the rare earths. When Balke left Illinois in 1916, Hopkins carried on this research, specializing more and more in the chemistry of the rare earths. This was the field in which he made his greatest contributions to chemistry.At that time, separating rare earths from each other was a long and tedious process, depending on repeated recrystallizations of the double magnesium nitrates, the bromates, and other salts. In some cases, thousands of recrystallizations were necessary. In 1926, Hopkins with Leonard Yntema and J. Allen Harris announced the discovery of the long sought element 61, which they named �illinium.� Repeated attempts failed to concentrate this element any further, and with the development of fission reaction, it was determined that element 61 (now known as promethium) was highly radioactive. Most chemists concluded that it did not exist in nature. Hopkins had considered the discovery of illinium the climax of his career, and was bitterly disappointed that his work was not accepted. But his contributions to rare earth chemistry were significant and laid the groundwork for much subsequent research.

B. Smith Hopkins and the discovery of "illinium", Element 61

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.