General
Properties of molybdenum and molybdenum-based alloys

The name molybdenum comes from the Greek word for lead, as it has long been confused with this material. Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1778) distinguished the two metals. He manipulated MoS₂ with dilute nitric acid and, after distillation of the latter, obtained a white MoO₃ powder, which he named "molybdenum earth". Peter Jacob Hjelm identified molybdenum metal four years later, and J.J. Berzelius is credited with determining the chemical properties of molybdenum .

In the 18th century, its use was confined to tinctures, and more than a century elapsed between its discovery and H. Moissan's (1894) production of very...