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Named for the Greek Titan who steal fire from Zeus and gave it to world , glow - in - the - obscure promethium is a extremely radioactive , rarefied earth element . It is not found anywhere on Earth and is ascertain in the byproducts of uranium nuclear fission reactions . Due to its rarity , its principal purpose is for enquiry ; it has hypothesis for use in a variety of medical devices , batteries , and in luminescent paint .
Just the facts
History
When Dmitri Mendeleev organized what is now get it on as the periodic table in the recent 1860s , he bequeath gaps for unknown elements based on a variety of properties . Bohuslav Brauner in 1902 expanded on Mendeleev ’s tabular array and created places for newly find element that did n’t fit on the original table and created more blank space for the unknowns , as Mendeleev did , accord toPeter van der Krogt , a Dutch historiographer . One such blank space was element 61 , which lies between neodymium and Sm .
Henry Moseley , a British scientist , confirm the cristal - ray radio theme song of the unknown element in 1914 , and several claims of the strong-arm discovery of promethium follow :
Although it is potential that atomic number 61 was really produced in several of these typesetter’s case , other investigator could not confirm any of them .
Promethium is named for Prometheus of the Greek mythology. A famous statue of Prometheus is at Rockefeller Center in New York.
The first successful identification and separation of element 61 was in 1945 by Charles D. Coryell , Jacob A. Marinsky , Lawrence E. Glendenin and Harold G. Richter , researcher for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge , Tennessee , during their sketch in creating fuel for an atomic bomb calorimeter , according to van der Krogt . They were able to identify isotope promethium-147 in the by-product of U fission . Their result were confirm by utilizing a mass spectrometer and print in 1947 , detain due to their involution in World War II research efforts . The name promethium was suggested by Grace Mary Coryell , Coryell ’s married woman , and the name was adopted by the International Union of Chemistry in 1949 .
Who knew?
Current research
The majority of Pm is used for research determination , and it does n’t have many other uses due to its gamy radiation and very limited supply . One such commercial use for promethium is for a power source for medical gimmick .
Apatent filed in 2014by Peter Cabauy , CEO of City Labs , discusses a new design for a betavoltaic king source where the beta particles come from the decay of promethium-147 , tritium , or nickel-63 . The technology is base on a design from the early 1970 ’s that used promethium-147 to power a cardiac pacesetter that was successfully implanted in over a hundred patients .
Some of the welfare described by Cabauy in the letters patent are that promethium-147 is more pronto useable and less expensive then other options for suddenly - lived medical implant sensing element and it can be used in its metal form . The power source design is meant for small form medical machine and can also be used in any applications where the lowly size of it battery is worthy .
Electron configuration and elemental properties of promethium.
Additional resources
