How did Sir Humphry Davy independently isolate boron?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

In 1808, the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy independently isolated boron by heating boron oxide (B₂O₃) with potassium metal.12

This process resulted in the production of an impure, brownish-black amorphous powder, which remained the only known form of the element for more than a century. Davy’s discovery occurred during the same year that French chemists Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thenard independently isolated the element using a similar chemical reduction method.13