Technetium
is element number 43 and is the lowest atomic number element that has no stable
isotopes -all Technetium isotopes are radioactive. Its name comes from the
Greek word technetos, which means artificial. This name is
appropriate because Technetium was the first element to ever be produced artificially.
It is a silvery-gray, crystalline transition metal.
Technetium
has a long and complicated history. Dmitri
Mendeleev (the man who created the Periodic table) predicted most of
the properties of Technetium years before it was actually discovered. Between
1860 and 1925, several groups proposed that they had discovered the missing
element between Molybdenum (number 42) and Ruthenium (number 44). After further research, it was
determined that none of the groups had found Element 43, but rather other
elements.
Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segre at the University of Palermo in
Sicily officially discovered technetium in 1936. They did this through the study
of radioactive molybdenum. In 1952, Paul W. Merrill, an astronomer, detected technetium spectral signals in
light from S-type red giants. Since none of Technetium's
isotopes last more than 4.2 billion years (the longest half-life belongs to Tc-98),
this helps confirm the theory that stars can produce heavier elements.
A
few of the uses of Technetium are as a radioactive tracer, for the calibration
of equipment, and for research purposes.
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