Scientists have created a very rare and extremely radioactive element, francium!
Francium is one of the rarest artificial elements or metals in the world today. It is the 87th element in the periodic table and its atomic symbol is Fr. The highly valuable francium is an alkali metal. It is a temporary artificial element belonging to group 1 (IA) in the periodic table. Its atomic mass is 223.0197.
This extremely radioactive metal is not found in nature. However, scientists create it in laboratories. Although it is a temporary element, it is able to react with other elements. It ends its half-life in just 22 minutes after being created in the laboratory. In its solid state, the color of the francium element is slightly silvery and gray.
In fact, in 1939, Marguerite Perey discovered this extremely rare element at the Curie Institute in Paris, the capital of France. Marguerite Perey was the first woman elected to the French Academy of Sciences. Even Nobel laureate Marie Curie did not achieve that honor. However, she died in 1975 after a long 15-year battle with deadly cancer.
Although scientists have been able to create extremely radioactive francium elements in very small quantities in the lab, some scientists believe that it is not possible to find more than a little more than 15 grams (less than an ounce) of this element in the Earth's crust. Although the element francium is named after the European country of France, scientists actually first named it "catenium." This rare element was later renamed "catenium" to francium.
As a transient element, the metal has 33 isotopes that are extremely radioactive. Its most stable isotope, francium-223 (called actinium after the natural decay chain), has a half-life of only 22 minutes. Its melting point is 27 degrees Celsius and its boiling point is 680 degrees Celsius. Moreover, its density at standard temperature and pressure is 1.87 grams per cubic centimeter.
This radioactive element, which is artificially created in a laboratory, is not found naturally on Earth. Scientists create francium in the laboratory by bombarding thorium with protons or radium with neutrons. Since it is a transient element, it quickly decays into other elements.
Although it has no commercial use, scientists use the element francium with caution in limited quantities in high-level nuclear technology research and radioisotope-based medical science, especially in cancer diagnostic research.
References: - Wikipedia, Encyclopedia, Wikibooks, National Institutes of Health (US).
