RADIUM

HISTORY

• Discovered in Paris, France
• By Marie Curie and Pierre Curie in 1898
• Latin for radius (rays), symbol Ra
• Pure radium found by Marie & Andre-Louis in 1910
• Radium was used in Rutherford's experiment

PROPERTIES

• Physical state solid
• Melt pt. 1292F Boil pt. 3158.6F
• Density 5.5 g/cm^3
• Worth $100 per gram

PROPERTIES CONT..

• 3 million x's more reactive than uranium
• It glows green
• Pure white, blackens with nitrogen contact
• Isotopes are radium-226, radium 224, and radium-228

SOURCES

• Found in tiny amounts in seawater and in most of the earth's rocks.
• You must crush the ore and dissolve it with sulfuric acid.
• Decay product, radon gas, is radioactive

USES THEN

• Luminous paint for clocks hands
• Treat diseases such as cancer
• Toothpaste, hair cream
• "Radium girls" died when painting clock hands They...
• lick the brushes to get a point not knowing it was deadly

USES NOW

• Used for cancer therapy
• Glowing paint for aircraft controls
• Contact kills cells
• Tips of lightening rods

FOUND AT

• Czech Republic, Canada, and Zaire.
• Pitchblende rock
• Small amounts in rocks,soil, water, plants, and animals

INTERESTING FACTS

• Radium emits alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays.
• It takes at least one year for you to die of extreme radium exposure
• You take in 80% of radium 20% stays in your bones

REACTIVE

• Radium is reactive with
• radium(II)chloride
• radium(II) bromide
• radium hydroxide
• Ba(OH)2

RARE

• Only traces of natural radium
• Found in other ore such as Uranium
• Has the most shells of the alkali earth metals

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