The chemical element gallium
Gallium is a rare metal discovered in 1875 by the French chemist Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. He named the chemical element after Gaul, the Latin name for France. A special feature of gallium is its low melting point of 29.8 °C – you cannot hold it in your hand without it melting.
Gallium is mostly a by-product of aluminium and zinc production. By far the largest areas of application are semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, which is used in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and the production of thin-film solar cells.