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Overview

Humans have been using compounds of cobalt since at least 1400 B.C. The compounds were used to color glass and glazes blue. In 1735, Swedish chemist Georg Brandt (1694-1768) analyzed a dark blue pigment found in copper ore. Brandt demonstrated that the pigment contained a new element, later named cobalt.

Cobalt is a transition metal, one of several elements found in Rows 4 through 7 between Groups 2 and 13 in the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to each other. Cobalt is located between iron and nickel and shares many chemical and physical properties with these two elements.