This radioactive form is used to treat cancers and is relatively unusual in medical radioisotopes in being water soluble. But to create the radioactive form of the compound, it is enriched with caesium isotopes, particularly caesium 137, produced in the waste of nuclear reactors.Īn example of the mineral Pollucite on display in the Vale Inco Limited Gallery of Minerals at the Royal Ontario Museum. Elemental caesium itself is usually produced from the caesium chloride extracted from the mineral. It is most concentrated in a mineral called pollucite, also containing aluminium and silicon amongst other constituents, where the caesium makes up around 20 per cent of the whole. Caesium chloride with the non-radioactive caesium 133 occurs naturally, as a trace constituent in some minerals and in mineral water (which is where caesium was discovered). The best-known uses are probably those involving a radioactive form of the salt. By contrast, in sodium chloride, each ion is surrounded by six of its counterpart in an octahedral shape. Structurally, the salt is a simple chloride like the more familiar sodium chloride, but because caesium is a lot closer to chlorine in size, it forms a crystalline structure where each caesium ion is surrounded by eight chlorines at the corners of a cube. Yet, while only about 20 tonnes of this colourless crystalline substance are produced each year, it has a surprisingly wide range of applications. This week, Brian Clegg brings us a versatile compound that’s used in cancer treatment, solar cells and even making beer…Ĭaesium is one of those elements that feels unfamiliar – it would probably be ‘pointless’ in a periodic table question on the eponymous TV show – which leaves a compound like caesium chloride in inevitable obscurity.
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