Melting point of caesium11/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Thermionic energy converters use a vapor of cesium ions to determine the work function of the electrodes. In commercial and industrial applications, cesium salts can serve as catalyst promoters, glass amplifiers, components of photoelectric cells, crystals in scintillation counters, and "getters" in vacuum tubes Cesium formate brine is commonly used in oil drilling to lubricate bits and maintain pressure. The radioactive isotope cesium-3 is often used in X-ray irradiation for cancer treatment. Laboratories use cesium compounds for various functions in organic chemistry, such as the hydrogenation of organic compounds or, in the case of cesium fluoride, as a source of the fluorine anion. Oxygen-free metallic cesium can also be produced by the thermal decomposition of cesium azide (CsN45). The primary commercial source of metallic cesium is the mining of pollucite, while cesium radioisotopes are produced from waste from nuclear reactors. Bunsen and Kirchhoff gave the new element a name based on the Latin word Caesius (sky or celestial blue) for the two bright blue lines in its spectrum.Ĭesium is the most abundant element on earth and is found in the minerals pollucite, avogadrite, pezzottaite, londonite, rhodicite, beryl and some potassium ores. Cesium was also the first spectroscopically discovered element of the German scientists Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, who had invented the technology last year. Only one of the known isotopes of cesium is stable (133Cs), but with its 39 isotopes it is associated with xenon, the two elements with the largest amount of known isotopes. Mercury is the only element with a lower melting point. Cesium melts at 28 ° C, making it one of three elements (the others are gallium and mercury) that are liquid at or near room temperature. The heaviest of the stable alkali metals, cesium, has a silvery-golden appearance, is ductile and, with 0,2 on the Mohs scale, the softest element in the periodic table. Although cesium is only mildly toxic, it is considered hazardous because of its high reactivity and is usually packaged in glass ampoules in vacuo or under an inert gas such as argon. ![]() Cesium chloride (CsCl) and cesium nitrate (CsNO 3) are cesium's most common compounds and are primarily used in the production of other chemicals.With an electron in the sixth and outermost shell, cesium is the most electropositive of all stable elements in the periodic table: the metal is extremely pyrophoric, ignites spontaneously when in contact with air, and explodes violently in water or ice at any temperature above -116 ° C. Cesium hydroxide is the strongest base known and will attack glass. Since it is easily ionized and has a high mass, cesium ions may one day be used as a propellant in ion engines on spacecraft.Ĭesium reacts violently with water and ice, forming cesium hydroxide (CsOH). Cesium is also used in atomic clocks, in photoelectric cells and as a catalyst in the hydrogenation of certain organic compounds. Cesium readily combines with oxygen and is used as a getter, a material that combines with and removes trace gases from vacuum tubes. Cesium is recovered from cesium azide by heating it.Ĭesium has the second lowest melting point of all metallic elements, which limits its uses. Metallic cesium is too reactive to easily handle and is usually sold in the form of cesium azide (CsN 3). To obtain pure cesium, cesium and rubidium ores are crushed and heated with sodium metal to 650☌, forming an alloy that can then be separated with a process known as fractional distillation. Obtaining pure cesium is difficult since cesium ores are frequently contaminated with rubidium, an element that is chemically similar to cesium. Today, cesium is primarily obtained from the mineral pollucite (CsAlSi 2O 6). They named cesium after the blue lines they observed in its spectrum. Cesium was discovered by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, German chemists, in 1860 through the spectroscopic analysis of Durkheim mineral water. ![]()
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