Radium [Ra] (CAS-ID: 7440-14-4) locate me
An: 88 N: 138 Am: [ 226 ]
Group No: 2  Group Name: Alkaline earth metal
Block: s-block  Period: 7
State: solid
Colour: metallic Classification: Metallic
Boiling Point: 2010K (1737'C)
Melting Point: 973K (700'C)
Density: 5.5g/cm3
Shell Structure diagram | Atomic Radius diagram
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Discovery Information
Who: Pierre and Marie Curie
When: 1898
Where: France
Name Origin
Latin: radius (ray).
Sources
Found in uranium ores at 1 part per 3 million parts uranium.
Uses
Used in treating cancer because of the gamma rays it gives off.
Formerly used in self-luminous paints for watches, clocks and instrument dials. More than 100 former watch dial painters who used their lips to shape the paintbrush died from the radiation. Soon afterward, the adverse effects of radioactivity became widely known. Radium was still used in dials as late as the 1950's. Objects painted with this paint may still be dangerous, and must be handled properly. Currently, tritium is used instead of radium. Although tritium still carries some risks, it is considered by many to be safer than radium.
Notes
Radium is highly radioactive and its decay product, radon gas is also radioactive. Since radium is chemically similar to calcium, it has the potential to cause great harm by replacing it in the bone.
Radium is over a million times more reactive than an equivalent mass of Uranium.
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