Cobalt "goblin", a superstitious term used for the ore of cobalt by miners. The first attempts to smelt those ores for copper or nickel failed, yielding simply powder (cobalt(II) oxide) instead. Because the primary ores of cobalt always contain arsenic, smelting the ore oxidized the arsenic into the highly toxic and volatile arsenic oxide, adding to the notoriety of the ore. Swedish chemist Georg Brandt (1694–1768) is credited with discovering cobalt circa 1735, showing it to be a previously unknown element, different from bismuth and other traditional metals. Brandt called it a new "semi-metal". He showed that compounds of cobalt metal
Cobalt boride Cobalt boride nanoparticless in the size range of 18 to 22 nm have also been produced. When used as a catalyst, cobalt boride is prepared by reducing a cobalt salt, such as Cobalt(II) nitrate, with sodium borohydride. Prior to reduction, the surface area of the catalyst is maximized by supporting the salt on another material; often this material is activated carbon. Cobalt boride Cobalt borides are inorganic compounds with the general formula CoB. The two main cobalt borides CoB and CoB. These are refractory materials. Cobalt boride is known to be exceptionally resistant to oxidation, a chemical property which makes