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In 1911, Georges Urbain claimed to have found the element in rare-earth residues which was shown later to be a mixture of already discovered lanthanides.

Dirk Coster and George de Hevesy found it by X-ray spectroscopic analysis in Norwegian zircon in 1922.

Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer were the first to prepare metallic hafnium by passing hafnium tetra-iodide vapor over a heated tungsten filament in 1924.

Hafnium oxide-based compounds are being introduced into silicon-based chips to produce smaller, more energy efficient and performance packed processors.

Most of the hafnium produced is used in the production of control rods for nuclear reactors.

Hafnium is also used in photographic flash bulbs, light bulb filaments, and in electronic equipment as cathodes and capacitors.