POLONIUM

(Po), a radioactive, silvery-gray or black metallic element of the oxygen family (Group VIa in the periodic table). The first element to be discovered by radiochemical analysis, polonium was discovered in 1898 by Pierre and Marie Curie, who were investigating the radioactivity of a certain pitchblende, a uranium ore. Polonium is a very rare element (its abundance in the Earth's crust is about one part in 1015) that occurs in nature as a radioactive decay product of uranium, thorium, and actinium. The half-lives of its isotopes range from a fraction of a second up to 103 years; the most common natural isotope of polonium, polonium-210, has a half-life of 138.4 days. Polonium usually is isolated from by-products of the extraction of radium from uranium minerals. It can be produced artificially by bombarding bismuth or lead with neutrons or with accelerated charged particles. Chemically, polonium resembles the elements tellurium and bismuth. Because polonium is highly radioactive-it disintegrates to a stable isotope of lead by emitting alpha rays, which are streams of positively charged particles-it must be handled with extreme care. When contained in such substances as gold foil, which prevent the alpha radiation from escaping, polonium is used industrially to eliminate static electricity generated by such processes as paper rolling, the manufacture of sheet plastics, and the spinning of synthetic fibres. It is also used on brushes for removing dust from photographic film and in nuclear physics as a source of alpha radiation. Mixtures of polonium with beryllium or other light elements are used as sources of neutrons. atomic number 84 atomic weight 210 melting point 254 C (489 F) boiling point 962 C (1,764 F) density 9.4 g/cm3 oxidation states -2, +2, +3(?), +4, +6 electronic config. 2-8-18-32-18-6 or 1s22s22p63s23p63d104s24p64d104f145s25p65d106s26p4