![]() The discovery of any new element, for that matter, is exciting. The discovery of Francium was an extremely important event in the world of chemistry. Examining Francium is practically not possible because of its too unstable nature.ĭiscovery of Francium and Academic Snobbery This newly discovered element was named after France. All these revelations led her to believe that the Ac actually produced a new element and that new element, in turn, decayed into Radium by emitting Beta radiation. She also noticed that the Ac also emitted extremely mild Alpha radiation. Furthermore, she noticed that the radiation intensity changed with time, so this radiation could not have been the radiation of Ac. She rightly thought that this Beta radiation could not be the radiation of thorium or uranium or other such daughter elements. She also observed that the Beta ray being emitted from Ac was not as intense as she expected. While working with Actinium, Perey discovered that the element demonstrated an ascending amount of radioactivity till two hours from its obtaining. She was interested in finding evidence that could back up the theory that Actinium emitted Beta radiation. Interestingly enough, Perey never intentionally searched for the evidence of alpha radiation. Even after the death of Marie Curie, Perey continued her work under Debierne and under the daughter of Marie Curie. Her primary task was to purify Actinium to get rid of the Uranium ores and other impurities. Why we mentioned his name will be clear later on.Īs the search for eka-Caesium was growing, a woman named Marguerite Perey started working as a lab assistant to help Marie Curie. Debierne who worked alongside Marie Curie. However, it was still not possible to prove the theory. Marguerite Perey: The Woman Who Discovered FranciumĪs said, Actinium was regarded as the parent of Francium. The problem was solved, however, with the entry of the hero of this story. If Actinium is a Beta transmitter, how can it produce an element that is two atomic numbers less than that of its own? And if Radon is an Alpha transmitter, how could it decay into Fr? This made scientists scratch their heads. The problem was that Actinium was regarded as Beta transmitters and Radon was regarded as Alpha transmitters. The element that was two periods to the right of Francium is Actinium and the element on the left-hand side of Francium is Radon. If the radioelement emits Beta particles, the resulting elements must be placed one period to the right. If the nucleus of the radioactive element emits an alpha particle during the radioactive decay, the consequent production of the new element must be placed two periods to the left in the periodic table. Two very straight forward rules were formulated. ![]() In the first part of the 20th century particularly after 1913, scientists started realising in a much more comprehensive way than the decay of radioactive elements gives rise to ‘daughter atoms’. Why Scientists Expected The Existence of A New Element Below Caesium: Radioactive Displacement Law Hence, it was temporarily known as eka-Cesium until its discovery. As time progressed, scientists realised that there should be an element just below Cs. Just like Mendelev predicted that there were elements that were yet to be discovered, many other scientists did that too. Eka, dvi and tri are the Sanskrit words for one, two and three.Įka-Caesium: The Temporary Name Given to Francium Hence he named the potentially discoverable element as eka-Aluminium. For example, Mendeleev predicted the existence of the element that would occupy the box just below Aluminium. Taking it forward from where we left above, if the yet-to-be-discovered elements were to be placed two or three periods down the already discovered element, they would be given a suffix of dvi and tri respectively and then the already discovered element’s name will follow. If the yet to be discovered element had the atomic number that would place it just one period down the already discovered element, it was termed as Eka- followed by the name of the already discovered element. As the elements were still to be discovered, he gave these yet-to-be-discovered elements temporary names. So he incorporated gaps in his periodic table so that new elements could be accommodated in the future. When Mendeleev came up with the Periodic Table of the elements, he correctly deduced that there were many elements that were still to be discovered (or synthesized). It is also the last discovered natural element. It is a radioactive element and is an alkaline metal. Francium is an extremely rare and unstable element that is placed in Group 1, Period 7 of the Periodic Table.
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