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RADIUM |
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Properties Pure metallic radium is dazzling white after it has been isolated, but as it is exposed to the air it turns black due to oxidation. Radium displays luminescence, emits a red colour when it is exposed to a flame and decomposes when it is placed in water. Radium is similar in its properties (except for its radioactivity) to the alkaline earths - calcium, strontium and barium. It comes from pitchblende an ore of uranium and is separated from it by using similar methods to those of the Curies. Radium emits alpha, beta, and gamma rays and when mixed with beryllium produces neutrons. Inhalation, injection, or body exposure to radium can cause cancer and other body disorders. It has four naturally occurring radioactive isotopes, but others can be produced in the laboratory. Radium has a half-life of 1620 years and the product of its disintegration is, radon, an inert gas disintegrated radioactively until it reaches stable lead. Radium is over a million times more radioactive than the same mass of uranium. Radiation from radium has a harmful effect upon living cells, and radium burns are
caused by over exposure to the
rays.
Symbol:
Ra
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