Strontium

Yellowed strontium

What is strontium?
Discovered by A. Crawford of Scotland in 1790, strontium is the 38th element on the chart. In 1808, a scientist by the name 'Davy' isolated strontium for the first time using electrolysis. Strontium, as it was discovered in Strontian, Scotland, was named strontium as a memorial to the town that founded it.

Strontium is an element softer than calcium, and it decomposes faster in water. Very finely divided metal strontium is very dangerous and ignites spontaneously in open air. It is a silver metal, but it can change quickly when oxidized to a yellowish color. Since it ignites so openly, it is often stored under kerosene.

Quick Fact: Strontium salt colors flames a deep red, and is often used in fireworks and flares.

Strontium is used in Systems for Nuclear Auxilliary Power (SNAP) devices, and also in producind glass for color TV picture tubes. It produces ferrite magnets, and also helps to refine zinc.

Rubidium

What is rubidium?

Rubidium is the 37th element in the periodic table. It was discovered by R. Bunsen and G. Kirchoff of Germany in 1861. It was discovered in a mineral petalite via its dark red spectral lines.

 It makes sense that the word rubidus in Latin means 'deepest red". However, rubidium itself is not deep red. It is actually a soft, silvery white metallic element of the alkali group.

Rubidium is liquid at room temperature, but is very dangerous as it ignites spontaneously in air and reacts violently in water, setting fire to liberated hydrogen. Therefore, it must be stored under dry mineral oil, in a vacuum, or in an inert atmosphere.


Some Facts About Rubidium:

• Rubidium melts at a temperature just above that of the human body.
• Rubidium was discovered through spectroscopy, when the two scientists discovered two deep red spectral lines in their sample of petalite. They named rubidium after the Latin term for 'deepest red'.
• Rubidium is often used in fireworks to give them a red/violet color.

Krypton

What is krypton?

Sir William Ramsey

Discovered by Sir William Ramsey, M.W. Travers of Great Britain in 1898, krypton means 'hidden' in Greek. Ramsey was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1904. He was given it for the discovery of many noble gasses, one of them being krypton. Krypton is often inert, but it CAN for it's own molecules. The first krypton molecule, krypton difluoride, was discovered in 1963, long after Ramsey was dead.












Fun Facts About Krypton:

• Krypton is also the name of the world which Superman comes from in the movies.
• Earth's atmosphere has approximately 1 part per million abundance of krypton.
• Light bulbs containing krypton gas always produce a very bright white light used often in photography and runway lights.
• Krypton is often used in ion lasers and gas lasers.
• Krypton can be gotten by fractional distillation of air.

I apologize for the length of this post! My sources did not give me much information on the topic.... it seems krypton info is pretty elusive.

Bromine

What is bromine?
Let's get straight to the point in today's post- element 25, bromine! Bromine was discovered by Antoine J. Balard of France in 1826, and means 'stench' in Greek. And it is no surprise! Bromine, when in liquid form, smells exactly like bleach. Bromine was almost discovered by two other scientists before Balard published his studies... but they did not take too much note of it, therefor making Balard the true founder of bromine.

Bromine is a reddish-brown rust colored liquid that has a metallic luster in solid form. In 1825, German scientist Justus von Liebig was sent to sample the water in a nearby town, and he came up with a small vial of bromine. Mistaking it as a mixture of iodine and chlorine (because of the smell), Liebig thought nothing of it until the following year, when Balard's studies came out.


Scientists must be careful when handling bromine- the stinky element is highly toxic and can cause corrosion burns when exposed to skin. Almost ironically, bromine is used in many fire retardant compounds, and is also used in sedatives.

Even more shockingly, the royal purple dye used in most clothing has a base compound of bromine! It is also used in leaded fuels and gave Herbert Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Company, a start to his business: separating bromine from briny waters in the Midwestern United States.

Selenium

What is selenium?
Discovered by Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Johan Gottlieb Gahn of Sweden, selenium is the 34th element in the periodic table. It's name means 'moon' in Greek. It is a member of the sulfur group of nonmetallic elements and it is very similar to this element in form and compounds.

 Selenium has 'photovoltaic action', where light is converted directly to electricity. Selenium has many different forms, but is most commonly found in a crystalline form, shown to the right in form of a red vase.

Amorphus selenium is either red (powder) or black (vitreous). Crystalline selenium is usually deep red, and crystalline hexagonal selenium, which is the most stable type, is gray with a metallic luster.

What is it used for?
Selenium is most commonly used in xerography to copy documents and also in photographic toner. It is used widely in many glass products to color glass ruby red (as seen above). Because of it's ability to convert AC electricity to DC, it is widely used in rectifiers. Selenium is also used as an additive to stainless steel.


Where is it found?
Selenium is found in many types of soils, and is also found in the minerals crooksite and clausthalite. It can also be recovered by roasting mud with soda or sulfuric acid. or by smiting soda and niter.

Arsenic

What is arsenic?

Discovered by Albertus Magnus in the year 1250, arsenic stands for many things, such as Latin arsenicum and Greek arsenikon: yellow orpiment, identified with arenikos, male, from the belief that metals were different sexes; Arabic Az-zernikh: the orpiment from Persian zerni-zar, and gold.

Yellow arsenic ( shown on the right ) has a lower gravity of 1.97, while grey arsenic ( shown on bottom left ) has a gravity of 5.73. Gray arsenic is usually the more stable form, a very brittle and semi-metallic solid. It is steel-light grey in color, crystalline, and tarnishes quickly in open air. Arsenic and all of its compounds are poisonous.


Where is it found?

Ferrous Sulfide

 Arsenic is often found in its native state, in realgar and orpiment as its sulfides, as arsenides and sulfaresenides of heavy metals, as arsenates, and as its oxide. The most common mineral is Mispickel or arsenopyrite, which can be heated to sublime arsenic, leaving ferrous sulfide.


What is it used for?
Arsenic is used for many things, but mainly is used as a doping agent in solid-state devices. Gallium arsenide is used in lasers which convert electricity into light. Arsenic is used pyrotechny, hardening and improving the sphericity of shot, and in bronzing. Arsenic compounds are used in many pesticides and other poisons.

Fun Fact: When arsenic is heated in air, it lets off a smell that resembles that of garlic. It has also been known for centuries as "The King of Poisons".

Citrine

A citrine is a very pretty gemstone that comes in the colors of the sunset. Many citrines are pale yellow to dark brown in color. Citrines rank a 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness. Like all other gems, it is valued on it's size and coloring, the darker the better.

 Many of the citrines being sold on the market today are heat-treated to bring out the deeper color in them, hence making them more expensive. Some people even believe that citrines are just amethysts that have had extreme heat treatment.

So where do citrines come from?

Many of the world's citrines come from Brazil, but these are only heat treated amethyst. Real citrine comes from France, Russia, and Madagascar. These stones are typically inexpensive, except when they are a golden orange color. Then, they can be priced at up to $30 per carat.

 Citrines are often mistaken as valuable yellow and orange topaz, and are sold by dishonest vendors as 'topaz' for a higher price. The citrine is supposed to help in the healing of the heart, kidney, liver and muscles. Citrine also helps eliminate self-destructive actions.

Germanium (Element #32)

What is germanium?
Germanium is the 32nd element in the periodic table. Discovered by Clemens Winkler in 1886, it is a greyish white metalloid when in pure form. It is a very brittle crystalline metal, and retains it's luster in air. A cool fact about germanium: it and it's oxide are transparent to infrared lights.

Winkler, upon first discovering germanium, originally named it 'neptunium', as the planet Neptune had also recently been discovered. At first, the use for germanium was low before it's semiconductor properties were found after World War II. Germanium production went from a few hundred kilograms per year to a hundred metric tonnes a year.

Where is it found?
Germanium is made by separating metals, creating volatile germanium which is then hydrolyzed to create GeO2. The dioxide is then reduced with hydrogen, which finalizes the element. More refined techniques allow for ultra-pure germanium to be made. In nature, germanium can be found in argyrodite, germanite, coal, zinc, and other minerals.


What is it used for?
Germanium is a very important semiconductor material. It is usually mixed with arsenic or gallium at a certain level and then used in electronics. Germanium is also an alloying agent, catalyst, and phosphor for fluorescent lamps.

Germanium, since it is hard to break, has led it to be used in many microscope and camera lenses. Organic germanium have very low toxicity to mammals, but are lethal to many bacteria, giving it highly potential medical importance.

Variscite

What is variscite?

Variscite is a beautiful pale green gemstone that sometimes has light brown streaks in it. It is a very rare phosphate mineral, and is often confused with other green gemstones such as chrysocolla and the greener forms of turquoise. Its colors range from a light bluish green to a deep evergreen. It has a very waxy look and takes a good polish. It can be a hard gemstone, but also soft, ranging from a 3.5-5 on the Mohs scale of hardness.

Where is it found?
Variscite is found in a number of places, including:

• Utah
• Nevada
• Queensland, Australia
• Germany
• Brazil

Variscite is known as three other names ranging across the world: Utahlite, Barrandite, Bolivarite, and Lucilite. 

The mystic variscite

Variscite is said to help with the sorrow and remembrance of deceased loved ones. I is said to help balance your central nervous system and eases depression, fear, worry, anxiety and impatience. It is a good meditation stone.