Cesium (sometimes spelled Caesium) is a silvery gold, soft, alkali metal and is one of 5 metals (along with rubidium, mercury, gallium and francium) that are liquid at, or near room temperature. Cesium is a very rare element mostly found in unusual, highly evolved granitic pegmatite rocks in form of the mineral pollucite and in certain brines from which Bunsen and Kirchkoff first discovered it in 1860. It was the first metal to be discovered by the spectroscope.
APPLICATIONS OF CESIUM
Cesium has only been commercially available for about forty years as a by-product of lithium chemical production. Applications for cesium include:
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Biomedical Uses: The best-known use of cesium is in liquids for the separation of DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid. Cesium compounds find further use as catalysts in biomedical and chemical research, and for tagging or tracing compounds. Cesium chloride has recently been found to be effective in treating all forms of cancer and shows great potential as an important new cure for this commonly fatal disease. Radioactive isotopes of cesium have long been used for radiation treatment of, for example, prostate cancer.
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Heavy Media: Cesium formate, a specialty drilling fluid developed by Cabot Corporation, is used in drilling deep, high pressure, high-temperature oil wells. This application represents the largest current industrial application for cesium. This product is rented, recovered for purification and loss make-up, and is then recycled.
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Electronics: The low ionization potential of cesium is exploited in photoelectric cell design and in photo-emissive and scintillation devices in electronics. A cesium vapour-laser computer has been experimentally demonstrated and cesium is commonly used in magnetometers for submarine detection and mineral exploration geophysics. It is presently used in infrared optics and is finding growing use in solar cell technology.
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Chronometry: An atomic clock, a 1999 design accurate to one second in 2 million years, functions on the basis of cesiumīs constant atomic resonance. It is used for closer spacing of data packages that multiplies capacities of fibre optic cable systems.
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Magneto-hydrodynamics and Ion Propulsion Motors: Cesium ionizes readily and can be used as a plasma for electricity generation and for ion propulsion motors in deep space probes.
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Fluoresence Of DNA
Separated In CsCl
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High Purity Cesium
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Cesium Fountain Atomic Clock
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Note
All alkali metals are highly reactive. Cesium, being one of the heavier alkali metals, is also one of the most reactive and is highly explosive when it comes in contact with water. The hydrogen gas produced by the reaction is heated by the thermal energy released at the same time, causing ignition and a violent explosion. Cesium is also highly pyrophoric and ignites spontaneously in air to form cesium hydroxide and various other oxides.
Avalonīs Activities
Avalonīs Lilypad Lakes property in Northwestern Ontario hosts a pollucite-rich pegmatite that may be one of the most significant undeveloped cesium resources in the world. Pollucite currently occurs in commercial quantities in only two deposits in the world -- the Tanco pegmatite in Manitoba, Canada and the Bikita pegmatite in Zimbabwe.
LINKS
www.webelements.com
