What makes rubidium

It leaves a warm and satisfying feeling when you say it, like the feeling one gets when tasting a good merlot. I'm not sure that any other element name comes close, except maybe beryllium. But honestly, rubidium is not one of the more popular or well-known elements.

The word rubidium comes from the Latin rubidus , meaning dark red, which coincidentally is the same color as merlot. The name stems from the color of the two prominent lines in the red region of the element's spectrum.

Rubidium has a rich chemistry, although most of it is the same as lithium, sodium, and potassium. So in descending order, that makes rubidium fourth place among the alkali metals. And, as in the Olympics, no one remembers who finishes in fourth place. Maybe there is a connection here as to why people usually stop at potassium when they make their way down the first column of the periodic table.

Actually, the real reason rubidium's popularity suffers is that the element has no known major biological or mineral roles and few commercial applications. This is related to its occurrence in Earth's continental crust. Rubidium was originally thought to be rare, but actually it's the 22nd most abundant element. Coursey, D. Schwab, J. Tsai, and R. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions version 4.

Periodic Table of Videos , accessed December Podcasts Produced by The Naked Scientists. Download our free Periodic Table app for mobile phones and tablets. Explore all elements. D Dysprosium Dubnium Darmstadtium. E Europium Erbium Einsteinium. F Fluorine Francium Fermium Flerovium.

G Gallium Germanium Gadolinium Gold. I Iron Indium Iodine Iridium. K Krypton. O Oxygen Osmium Oganesson. U Uranium. V Vanadium.

X Xenon. Y Yttrium Ytterbium. Z Zinc Zirconium. Membership Become a member Connect with others Supporting individuals Supporting organisations Manage my membership. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Youtube. Discovery date. Discovered by. Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen. Origin of the name. The name is derived form the Latin 'rubidius', meaning deepest red. Melting point. Boiling point. Atomic number. Relative atomic mass. Key isotopes. Electron configuration. CAS number. ChemSpider ID.

ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database. Electronegativity Pauling scale. Common oxidation states. Atomic mass. Half life. Mode of decay. Relative supply risk. Crustal abundance ppm. Top 3 producers. Top 3 reserve holders. Political stability of top producer. Political stability of top reserve holder.

Young's modulus GPa. Shear modulus GPa. Bulk modulus GPa. Vapour pressure. Temperature K. Pressure Pa. Listen to Rubidium Podcast. Transcript : Chemistry in its element: rubidium Promo You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

End promo Meera Senthilingam This week, we've got a radio active element that's good at keeping time but also has some fire in its belly. Tom Bond In a way, the story of rubidium starts in when the German chemists Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchoff invented the spectroscope and in turn opened the door to a new age of chemical analysis.

Meera Senthilingam So this explosive element may have minimal commercial applications but can be used in atomic clocks and has isotopes that can locate brain tumours.

John Whitfield A mixture of powdered tantalum and tantalum oxide is used in mobile phone capacitors, components that store electrical charge and control the flow of current.

Meera Senthilingam And John Whitfield will be explaining why we have tantalum to thank the next time we play the latest computer games, take hundreds of photos on holiday or when we're downloading this podcast on our laptops. The scientists found that rubidium was more electropositive meaning that rubidium tended to form positive ions more readily, according to Encyclopedia than potassium, another alkali metal and reacted violently with water releasing hydrogen.

According to New World Encyclopedia , there was very little need or use for rubidium until the s when it was used more frequently in research, chemical reactions, and electronic applications. According to the authors, rubidium is becoming one of the most widely used elements in tracers in myocardial studies and procedures. A similar study published in by Jennifer Renaud et al. Rubidium is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali metals group Group 1.

It is one of the most electropositive and alkaline elements. It ignites spontaneously in air and reacts violently with water and even with ice at C, setting fire to the liberated hydrogen. As so with all the other alkali metals, it forms amalgams with mercury. It alloys with gold , cesium , sodium , and potassium. Its flame is yellowish-violet. Rubidium and its salts have few commercial uses. The metal is used in the manufacture of photocells and in the removal of residual gases from vacuum tubes.

Rubidium salts are used in glasses and ceramics and in fireworks to give them a purple colour. Potential uses are in ion engines for space vehicles, as working fluid in vapor turbines, and as getter in vacuum tubes. Rubidium is considered to be the 16th most abundant element in the earth's crust. The relative abundance of rubidium has been reassessed in recent years and it is now suspected of being more plentiful than previously calculated.

It is very like potassium and there are no environments where it is seen as a threat.