Radium amalgam

L. radius, ray) Radium was discovered in 1898 by Mme. Curie in the pitchblende or uraninite of North Bohemia, where it occurs. There is about 1 g of radium in 7 tons of pitchblende. The element was isolated in 1911 by Mme. Curie and Debierne by the electrolysis of a solution of pure radium chloride, employing a mercury cathode on distillation in an atmosphere of hydrogen this amalgam yielded the pure metal. 

Radium, the last element in the group, was isolated in trace amounts as the chloride by P. and M. Curie in 1898 after their historic processing of tonnes of pitchblende. It was named by Mme Curie in allusion to its radioactivity, a word also coined by her (Latin radius, a ray) the element itself was isolated electrolytically via an amalgam by M. Curie and A. Debieme in 1910 and its compounds give a carmine-red flame test. 

In 1904 an amalgam of radium was obtained by Coehn who electrolysed a solution of radium bromide in methyl alcohol using a silver anode and an amalgamated zinc cathode. It was not until 1910 that Mme Curie and Debierne isolated the pure metal by... 

Marie Curie and her collaborator A. Debieme electrolyzed a solution containing 0.106 g of radium chloride. Metallic radium deposited on the mercury cathode forming amalgam. The amalgam was put into an iron vessel and heated under a hydrogen flow to remove mercury. Then grains of silvery whitish metal glistened at the bottom of the vessel. 

Metallic radium was prepared in 1910 by Marie Curie and Andre Debierne. They used 0.1 g of radium chloride and carried out an electrolytic reduction on a mercury cathode. When the liquid amalgam that had been formed was heated, mercury distilled off and elementary radium was isolated. 

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