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Because of the way it reacts with air and water, strontium only exists in nature when combined to form minerals. Naturally occurring strontium is stable, but its synthetic isotope Sr-90 is only produced by nuclear fallout. In groundwater strontium behaves chemically much like calcium. At intermediate to acidic pH Sr 2+ is the dominant strontium ...
Additionally, about 31 nuclides of the naturally occurring elements have unstable isotopes with a half-life larger than the age of the Solar System (~10 9 years or more). [b] An additional four nuclides have half-lives longer than 100 million years, which is far less than the age of the Solar System, but long enough for some of them to have ...
The ratio 87 Sr/ 86 Sr is the parameter typically reported in geologic investigations; [4] ratios in minerals and rocks have values ranging from about 0.7 to greater than 4.0 (see rubidium–strontium dating). Because strontium has an electron configuration similar to that of calcium, it readily substitutes for calcium in minerals.
Strontium and barium have fewer applications than the lighter alkaline earth metals. Strontium carbonate is used in the manufacturing of red fireworks. [75] Pure strontium is used in the study of neurotransmitter release in neurons. [76] [77] Radioactive strontium-90 finds some use in RTGs, [78] [79] which utilize its decay heat.
Celestine (the IMA-accepted name) [6] or celestite [1] [7] [a] is a mineral consisting of strontium sulfate (Sr S O 4). The mineral is named for its occasional delicate blue color. Celestine and the carbonate mineral strontianite are the principal sources of the element strontium, commonly used in fireworks and in various metal alloys.
About 8% by weight of cathode ray tubes is strontium oxide, which has been the major use of strontium since 1970. [3] [4] Color televisions and other devices containing color cathode ray tubes sold in the United States are required by law to use strontium in the faceplate to block X-ray emission (these X-ray emitting TVs are no longer in production).
Naturally occurring strontium is nonradioactive and nontoxic at levels normally found in the environment, but 90 Sr is a radiation hazard. [4] 90 Sr undergoes β − decay with a half-life of 28.79 years and a decay energy of 0.546 MeV distributed to an electron, an antineutrino, and the yttrium isotope 90 Y, which in turn undergoes β − decay with a half-life of 64 hours and a decay energy ...
Rubidium is the first alkali metal in the group to have a density higher than water. On Earth, natural rubidium comprises two isotopes: 72% is a stable isotope 85 Rb, and 28% is slightly radioactive 87 Rb, with a half-life of 48.8 billion years – more than three times as long as the estimated age of the universe.