Discovery Information
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Who: Carlo Perrier, Emillo Segre |
When: 1937 |
Where: Italy |
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Name Origin
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Greek: technetos (artificial). |
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Sources
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Made first by bombarding molybdenum with deuterons (heavy hydrogen) in a cyclotron.
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Uses
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The technetium-99m isotope serves as a radiation source in medicine where it is used to locate tumours in the spleen, liver, brain, and thyroid. When 99mTc is combined with a tin compound it binds to red blood cells and can therefore be used to map circulatory system disorders. Technetium-99 is used
for equipment calibration.
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Notes
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First artificially created element.
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All isotopes of technetium are radioactive but the element and its compounds are extremely rarely found in nature.
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Most technetium produced on Earth is a by-product of fission of uranium-235 in nuclear reactors and is extracted from nuclear fuel rods. On earth, technetium occurs naturally only in uranium ores as a product of spontaneous fission; the quantities are minute but have been measured.
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No isotope of technetium has a half-life longer than 4.2 million years (98Tc), so its detection in red giants in 1952 helped bolster the theory that stars can produce heavier elements.
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