Radium
Ra
Ra
By Charlie Lee
Symbol: Ra
Atomic Number: 88
Atomic Mass: 226 AMU
Family Name: Alkaline Earth Metal
Period Number: Period 7
Group: 2A
Color: Silvery
Basic Description:
Pure metallic radium is brilliant white when freshly prepared, but blackens on exposure to air, probablhy due to formation of the nitride. It exhibits luminescence, as do its salts; it decomposes in water and is somewhat more volatile than barium. Radium imparts a carmine red color to a flame.
Fun Facts on Radium:
- Radium is over a million times more radioactive than the same mass of uranium
- radium paint was used in the mid 1900s to paint the hands and numbers of some clocks and watches. The paint was composed of radium salts and a phosphor, and it glowed in the dark
- Radium is completely white in it's fresh state, but blackens on exposure to air
Atomic Structure of Radium
Radium is not used in normal households; it is radioactive and dangerous.
A radium clock
History of Radium:
Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie.
Origin of Name: From the Latin word "radius" meaning "ray".
Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie.
Origin of Name: From the Latin word "radius" meaning "ray".
Uses of Radium:
- self-luminous paints
- neutron sources
- medical uses for the treatment of conditions such as cancer (now being replaced by 60Co sources)
Marie Curie, Discoverer of Radium
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Isolation: all isotopes of radium are radioactive and there is only ever any need to make radium metal on very small scales for research purposes. Radium is extremely scarce but found in uranium ores such as pitchblende at slightly more than 1g in 10 tonnes of ore. It may be made on very small scale by the electrolysis of molten radium chloride, RaCl2. This was first done using a mercury cathode, which gave radium amalgam. The metal was obtained by distillation away from the amalgam.