The discovery of the elements. XIX. The radioactive elements

2013

Section: Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…XIX. The radioactive elements" published in the Journal of Chemical Education [17]. In addition, the wikipedia page on the radioactive decay chains was a good starting point [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of actinium, thorium, protactinium, and uranium isotopes

2013

“…XIX. The radioactive elements" published in the Journal of Chemical Education [18]. In addition, the wikipedia page on the radioactive decay chains was a good starting point [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of the thallium, lead, bismuth, and polonium isotopes

2013

“…XIX. The radioactive elements" published in the Journal of Chemical Education [18]. In addition, the wikipedia page on the radioactive decay chains was a good starting point [19].The isotopes within the radioactive decay chains were treated differently.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…"These results lead directly to the conclusion that a beta-emitting Em 221 with a 25minute half-life is present in the samples and is giving rise to the known Fr 221 chain." The quoted value is the currently adopted half-life 18. In 1899 P. Curie and M. Curie reported the observation of an activity in radium samples later identified as 222 Rn in "Sur la radioactivité provoquée par les rayons de Becquerel"[90].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of the astatine, radon, francium, and radium isotopes

2013

Currently, thirty-nine astatine, thirty-nine radon, thirty-five francium, and thirty-four radium isotopes have so far been observed; the discovery of these isotopes is discussed. For each isotope a brief summary of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented. Contents IntroductionThe discovery of astatine, radon, francium, and radium isotopes is discussed as part of the series summarizing the discovery of isotopes, beginning with the cerium isotopes in 2009 [1]. Guidelines for assigning credit for discovery are (1) clear identification, either through decay-curves and relationships to other known isotopes, particle or γ-ray spectra, or unique mass and Z-identification, and (2) publication of the discovery in a refereed journal. The authors and year of the first publication, the laboratory where the isotopes were produced as well as the production and identification methods are discussed. When appropriate, references to conference proceedings, internal reports, and theses are included. When a discovery includes a half-life measurement the measured value is compared to the currently adopted value taken from the NUBASE evaluation [2] which is based on the ENSDF database [3]. In cases where the reported half-life differed significantly from the adopted half-life (up to approximately a factor of two), we searched the subsequent literature for indications that the measurement was erroneous. If that was not the case we credited the authors with the discovery in spite of the inaccurate half-life. All reported half-lives inconsistent with the presently adopted half-life for the ground state were compared to isomer half-lives and accepted as discoveries if appropriate following the criterium described above.The first criterium is not clear cut and in many instances debatable. Within the scope of the present project it is not possible to scrutinize each paper for the accuracy of the experimental data as is done for the discovery of elements [4]. In some cases an initial tentative assignment is not specifically confirmed in later papers and the first assignment is tacitly accepted by the community. The readers are encouraged to contact the authors if they disagree with an assignment because they are aware of an earlier paper or if they found evidence that the data of the chosen paper were incorrect.The discovery of several isotopes has only been reported in conference proceedings which are not accepted according to the second criterium. One example from fragmentation experiments why publications in conference proceedings should not be considered is 118 Tc and 120 Ru which had been reported as being discovered in a conference proceeding [5] but not in the subsequent refereed publication [6]. 2 The initial literature search was performed using the databases ENSDF [3] and NSR [7] of the National Nuclear Data Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory. These databases are complete and reliable back to the early 1960's. For earlier references, several editions of the Table of Iso...