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 >>    name         Linda

 >>    Question -   what is francium used for?
 >>Does francium have any uses?

Hello,

I actually did not know about this element other than its name.  I looked 
up some basic information on it (below).  In summary,  there is not much of 
Francium around, and what there is or is made does not last for long 
(disintegrates into lighter elements in a few hours).   probably it is 
being investigated or used in some physics experiments somewhere and  it 
seems unlikely to show up as a food additive at your grocery store anytime 
soon.

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Discovered in 1939 by Mlle Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute, Paris. 
Francium, the heaviest known member of the alkali metals series, occurs as 
a result of an alpha disintegration of actinium. It can also be made by 
artificially bombarding thorium with protons.

While it occurs naturally in uranium minerals, there is probably less than 
an ounce of francium at any time in the total crust of the earth. It has 
the highest equivalent weight of any element, and is the most unstable of 
the first 101 elements of the periodic system. Thirty-three isotopes of 
francium are recognized. The longest lived 223Fr (Ac, K), a daughter of 
227Ac, has a half-life of 22 min. This is the only isotope of francium 
occurring in nature. Because all known isotopes of francium are highly 
unstable, knowledge of the chemical properties of this element comes from 
radiochemical techniques. No weighable quantity of the element has been 
prepared or isolated. The chemical properties of francium most resemble 
cesium. Sources: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics and the American 
Chemical Society. ======


Dr. Ali Khounsary
Advanced Photon Source
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL 60439
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