Caesium Facts
Caesium Facts
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| Interesting Caesium Facts: |
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| Caesium was discovered by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff in 1860. |
| Its name, which is Latin for "sky blue," comes from the blue emission lines it gives off in spectroscopy. |
| It was the first element ever to be discovered using the newly created spectroscope. |
| Its discoverers had invented the spectroscope the year before. |
| The International System of Measurements bases the formal definition of one second on the length of time it takes caesium to absorbs cycles of light. |
| While caesium is mined from minerals like pollucite, it is also a byproduct of nuclear fission in reactors. |
| It is a rare element, present in the Earth's crust at around three parts per million. |
| Caesium is the 45th most common element in the crust, and the 36th most common of the metal elements. |
| Caesium is one of five elements that are a liquid at room temperature. |
| Only mercury is a metal that has a lower melting point than caesium. |
| The caesium-potassium-sodium alloy has the lowest melting point of any alloy. |
| Caesium is pyrophoric and spontaneously combusts in air. |
| Caesium immediately explodes in water. |
| Because of these properties, caesium is stored and transported in mineral oil. |
| It is regarded as and handled as a hazardous material. |
| Caesium has thirty-nine known isotopes. |
| Caesium has only one stable isotope, Cs-133. |
| One radioactive isotope, Cs-135, has a half-life of around 2.3 million years, as it is one of uranium's long-lived fission products. |
| The shortest half-lives of any radioisotopes of caesium are measured in fractions of seconds. |
| Caesium is geochemically considered an incompatible element due to its ionic radius. |
| Caesium mining from pollucite ore is a slow process, as it involves hand sorting the crushed samples. |
| Caesium plays a vital role in usable energy production. |
| It is used to create drilling fluids for the petroleum industry, converting heat energy in the electrical production industry, and in nuclear reactors. |
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