Rubidium is an
alkali metal, which is soft and silvery-white in appearance. It was discovered
in 1861 by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff through flame spectroscopy (Bunsen burner
anyone?) Due to the bright red spectral emission, its name comes from the Greek
word "rubidius", which means dark or deepest red.
While
its identity was determined in the 1860s, prior to today's more
"exact" methods and measurements, Bunsen and Kirchhoff were within 1
degree Celsius of today's accepted melting point value, and within 0.1 g/cm3
of today's accepted density value.
When
it comes to natural abundance, Rubidium ranks 23. It is found in
several minerals all containing approximately 1% of rubidium. Its crustal
abundance is 90 mg/kg. It is also found in seawater, though in much less
concentration than potassium. Its oceanic abundance is 0.12 mg/L.
It has one stable isotope Rb-85 and one
slightly radioactive isotope Rb-87. Rb-87 has a half-life of around 49 billion
years, which makes it a primordial nuclide
or a naturally occurring state that has been around since before the creation
of Earth.
Some
uses of Rubidium are in fireworks to give them a purple color, and many medical
uses. One such medical usage is as a biomarker, since it can be taken up in
place of potassium by the body, and occurs only in small amounts in biological
creatures. It is also used in Biochemistry to induce cells to take up DNA. Some
compounds of rubidium can be used for electrical means in thin film batteries,
and also in some optical glasses.
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