MAGNESIUM

HISTORY AND DISCOVERY OF

MAGNESIUM ELEMENT
Magnesium (Mg), chemical element, one of the
alkaline-earth metals of Group 2 (Iia) of the
periodic table, and the lightest structural
metal.
 Its compounds are widely used in construction
and medicine, and magnesium is one of the
elements essential to all cellular life.
The name magnesium comes from Magnesia, a
district of Thessaly (Greece) where the mineral
magnesia alba was first found.
It was first isolated in 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy,
who evaporated the mercury from a magnesium
amalgam made by electrolyzing a mixture of moist
magnesia and mercuric oxide.
Magnesium was first isolated by Sir Humphry
Davy, an English chemist, through the
electrolysis of a mixture of magnesium oxide
(MgO) and mercuric oxide (HgO) in 1808.
The first person to recognise that magnesium
was an element was Joseph Black at Edinburgh
in 1755. He distinguished magnesia
(magnesium oxide, MgO) from lime (calcium
oxide, CaO) although both were produced by
heating similar kinds of carbonate rocks,
magnesite and limestone respectively.
Another magnesium mineral called meerschaum
(magnesium silicate) was reported by Thomas
Henry in 1789, who said that it was much used in
Turkey to make pipes for smoking tobacco.
Impure form of metallic magnesium was first
produced in 1792 by Anton Rupprecht who
heated magnesia with charcoal. A pure, but
tiny, amount of the metal was isolated in 1808
by Humphry Davy by the electrolysis of
magnesium oxide.
However, it was the French scientist, Antoine-
Alexandre-Brutus Bussy who made a sizeable
amount of the metal in 1831 by reacting
magnesium chloride with potassium, and he
then studied its properties.
 USES OF MAGNESIUM ELEMENT

Magnesium is one-third less dense than aluminium. It improves the

mechanical, fabrication and welding characteristics of aluminium when
used as an alloying agent. These alloys are useful in aeroplane and car
construction.
Magnesium is used in products that benefit from being lightweight, such
as car seats, luggage, laptops, cameras and power tools.
It is also added to molten iron and steel to remove
sulfur.
• As magnesium ignites easily in air and burns with
a bright light, it’s used in flares, fireworks and
sparklers.
Magnesium sulfate is sometimes used as a
mordant for dyes. Magnesium hydroxide is
added to plastics to make them fire retardant.
Magnesium oxide is used to make heat-resistant
bricks for fireplaces and furnaces. It is also
added to cattle feed and fertilisers. Magnesium
hydroxide (milk of magnesia), sulfate (Epsom
salts), chloride and citrate are all used in
medicine.
Grignard reagents are organic magnesium
compounds that are important for the
chemical industry.Magnesium is a nutrient that
the body needs to stay healthy.
Magnesium is important for many processes in
the body, including regulating muscle and
nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood
pressure and making protein, bone, and DNA.
Magnesium is an essential element in both
plant and animal life. Chlorophyll is the
chemical that allows plants to capture
sunlight, and photosynthesis to take place.
Chlorophyll is a magnesium-centred porphyrin
complex. Without magnesium photosynthesis
could not take place, and life as we know it
would not exist.
Magnesium is the central core of the
chlorophyll molecule in plant tissue. Thus, if
Mg is deficient, the shortage of chlorophyll
results in poor and stunted plant growth.
Magnesium also helps to activate specific
enzyme systems.