#RADIUM AND POLONIUM SERIES#

It can be traced in tiny amounts in the uranium ores. Polonium is an extremely rare naturally occurring radioactive element. How Did Polonium Get Its Name?īeing her first chemical discovery, the Polish scientist Marie Curie named the new element polonium (Po) after her home country, Poland. In 1911, Marie Sklodowska Curie became the first woman in the world of science to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the radioactive elements polonium and radium. This activity was a result of a chemical that turned out to be even 300 times more radioactive than uranium. The continued analysis of the bismuth fractions resulted in a residue that showed even greater activity. This realization called for an even more detailed look at the atomic structure of the ore Marie and Pierre studied. A more detailed analysis of the pitchblende ore informed them that the radioactivity is emitted from the fractions containing bismuth or barium. Sharing her findings with her husband Pierre Curie, she invited him to join her on this new project – an idea that Pierre eagerly accepted. In her opinion, there was clearly a new radioactive chemical element that was even more radioactive than element 92. Observing a pitchblende sample obtained from the geological museum, Marie Curie noticed that this uranium ore is more active than uranium. As a next step, she decided to analyze the mineral ores containing these two elements. A naturally occurring ore called pitchblende was the first mineral sample in which Pierre and Marie Currie attempted to detect a source of radioactivity which ultimately led these two great scientists to the discovery of polonium.Īfter Marie Sklodowska Curie ambitiously analyzed all known elements of the periodic table, she realized that only two of them give off radiation – uranium and thorium.

#RADIUM AND POLONIUM SERIES#

In 1898, they began a series of detailed analyses of mineral ores in an attempt to detect radioactivity in some of them. The success story of the two distinguished chemists Pierre and Marie Currie did not begin with the discovery of radium. In fact, the position of element 84 according to Mendeleev’s classification of elements could make polonium a metal, a metalloid, or a nonmetal. Since its electrical conductivity decreases as its temperature rises, polonium is also classified as a metal substance in the periodic table. Polonium resembles the chemical properties of the elements bismuth, selenium, and tellurium. This member of the chalcogen family of elements has an electronegativity of 2.0 according to Pauling, whereas the atomic radius according to van der Waals is 0.164 nm. It reaches its boiling point at 962☌, 1764☏, 1235 K, while the melting point is achieved at 254☌, 489☏, 527 K. With the periodic table symbol Po, atomic number 84, atomic mass of g.mol -1, and electron configuration 4f 14 5d 10 6s 2 6p 4, polonium is a highly radioactive and reactive silvery-gray semi-metal. The energy of the first ionization: 813.0 kJ.mol -1ĭiscovery date: In 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie Most characteristic isotope: 209 Po and 210 PoĮlectronic shell: 4f 14 5d 10 6s 2 6p 4 Half-life: From 0.5 milliseconds to 125.2 yearsĮlectronegativity according to Pauling: 2.0ĭensity: 9.20 g.cm -3 at room temperature The symbol in the periodic table of elements: Po Fact Box Chemical and Physical Properties of Polonium Polonium-210 isotope is an exceptionally strong emitter of alpha particles that may lead to bone marrow damage and self-destruction of the cells in our body. Polonium is the most radioactive chemical element in the world with the largest number of isotopes among the chemical elements. The natural abundance of element 84 in Earth’s crust is only 2 × 10 −10 milligrams per kilogram.īeing a member of the chalcogen family of the periodic table, this radioactive metalloid has six valence electrons and six orbitals. It’s a rare and highly radioactive metal. Polonium is a chemical element with the atomic number 84 in the periodic table.

Radium and polonium