The name can be traced back to the Greek word ”arsenikon” meaning the yellow auric pigment and is probably connected with “arsenikos” meaning male. The ancient people believed that metals were of different sexes. Elementary arsenic occurs in two modifications, the yellow and the grey or metallic. Metallic arsenic is the one which is stable under normal conditions.

Albertus Magnus was the first to describe the preparation of arsenic in 1250. Arsenic gives a white colour to copper. This supposedly transformation into silver supported the belief that it was possible to transform metal, being typical for the alchemists. The toxicity of the “white arsenic” (arsenic trioxide) has also been known for a long time. Arsenic occurs naturally in the sulphides realgar and auric pigment and in the arsenides and sulphoarsenides of heavy metals, in the oxides and arsenates. The most common mineral is mispickel or arsenopyrite (FeAsS).

Arsenic in copper and lead alloys improve their casting properties and strength. Arsenic compounds were widely used as part of insecticides and wood preservatives, but due to its toxicity it is now mostly forbidden.

High purity arsenic, besides being used for doping silicon, is important as component of III/V-semiconductors, used mainly in components for wireless communication and for LED’s and laser diodes.