Friday, November 2, 2012

Technetium - Element of the Week from 10/26-11/2


            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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