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The meaning of the word technetium

technetium in the crossword dictionary

technetium

Dictionary of Medical Terms

New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

technetium

m. Artificially obtained radioactive chemical element.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

technetium

Technetium (Latin Technetium) Tc, a chemical element of the VII group of the periodic table, atomic number 43, atomic mass 98.9072. Radioactive, the most stable isotopes are 97Tc and 99Tc (half-lives, respectively 2.6 · 106 and 2.12 · 105 years). The first artificially obtained element; synthesized by Italian scientists E. Segre and C. Perrier in 1937 by bombarding molybdenum nuclei with deuterons. The name is from the Greek. technetos is artificial. Silver gray metal; density 11.487 g / cm3, m.p. 2200 ° C. Found in nature in trace amounts in uranium ores. Spectrally detected in the Sun and some stars. Obtained from nuclear waste. Component of catalysts. The 99mTc isotope is used in the diagnosis of brain tumors, in the study of central and peripheral hemodynamics.

Technetium

(lat. Technetium), Those, a radioactive chemical element of the VII group of the periodic system of Mendeleev, atomic number 43, atomic mass 98, 9062; metal, malleable and ductile.

The existence of an element with atomic number 43 was predicted by D.I.Mendeleev. T. was obtained artificially in 1937 by the Italian scientists E. Segre and C. Perrier during the bombardment of molybdenum nuclei with deuterons; got its name from the Greek. technetós ≈ artificial.

T. has no stable isotopes. Of the radioactive isotopes (about 20), two are of practical importance: 99Tc and 99mTc with half-lives, respectively, T1 / 2 = 2.12 × 105 years and T1 / 2 = 6.04 h. In nature, the element is found in insignificant amounts ≈ 10-10 g in 1 ton of uranium resin.

Physical and chemical properties. Metallic T. in the form of a powder is gray (reminiscent of Re, Mo, Pt); compact metal (fused metal ingots, foil, wire), silver-gray. T. in the crystalline state has a close-packed hexagonal lattice (a = 2.735, c = 4.391); in thin layers (less than 150) ≈ cubic face-centered lattice (a = 3.68 ╠ 0.0005); density T. (with a hexagonal lattice) 11.487 g / cm3, melting point 2200 ╠ 50 ╟С; tk type 4700 ╟С; electrical resistivity 69 ╥10-6 ohm × cm (100 ╟С); the temperature of the transition to the state of superconductivity Tc 8.24 K. T. is paramagnetic; its magnetic susceptibility at 25╟C is 2.7╥10-4. The configuration of the outer electron shell of the Tc atom is 4d55s2; atomic radius 1.358; ionic radius Tc7 + 0.56.

In terms of chemical properties, Tc is close to Mn and especially to Re; in compounds it exhibits oxidation states from -1 to +7. The most stable and well-studied compounds are Tc in the +7 oxidation state. During the interaction of T. or its compounds with oxygen, oxides Tc2O7 and TcO2 are formed, with chlorine and fluorine ≈ halides TcX6, TcX5, TcX4, the formation of oxyhalides is possible, for example, TcO3X (where X ≈ halogen), with sulfur ≈ sulfides Tc2S7 and TcS2. T. also forms techneciic acid HTcO4 and its salts, pertechnates MTcO4 (where M is a metal), carbonyl, complex, and organometallic compounds. In the series of voltages, T. stands to the right of hydrogen; it does not react with hydrochloric acid of any concentration, but easily dissolves in nitric and sulfuric acids, aqua regia, hydrogen peroxide, and bromic water.

Receiving. Waste from the nuclear industry is the main source of heat. The 99Tc yield upon fission of 235U is about 6%. From a mixture of fission products, T. in the form of pertechnates, oxides, and sulfides is extracted by extraction with organic solvents, ion exchange methods, and the precipitation of poorly soluble derivatives. The metal is obtained by reduction with hydrogen NH4TcO4, TcO2, Tc2S7 at 600 ~ 1000 ° C or by electrolysis.

Application. T. is a promising metal in technology; it can find application as a catalyst, high temperature and superconducting material. T. compounds are effective corrosion inhibitors. 99mTc is used in medicine as a source of g-radiation (see Radioisotope diagnostics and Radioactive preparations). T. is radiation hazardous; working with it requires special sealed equipment (see Radiation Safety).

Lit .: Kotegov K.V., Pavlov O.N., Shvedov V.P., Technetius, M., 1965; Obtaining Tc99 in the form of metal and its compounds from nuclear waste, in the book: Izotopov Proizvodstvo, Moscow, 1973.

A.F. Kuzina.

Wikipedia

Technetium

Technetium- an element of the seventh group, the fifth period of the periodic system chemical elements, atomic number - 43. It is denoted by the symbol Tc... Simple substance technetium(CAS number :) is a silver-gray radioactive transition metal. The lightest element with no stable isotopes. The first of the synthesized chemical elements.

Examples of the use of the word technetium in literature.

Now technetium used in medicine as a nuclear pharmaceutical agent for radiography of various organs in order to check their functional activity.

But where can I get technetium if not a single atom of it is on this planet?

From residual solutions after reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, technetium and promethium, as well as artificial transurans.

Rhenium and technetium in a number of characteristics, they turned out to be close to molybdenum and manganese, and this ended the dispute about the size of the platinum family.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the air fluttered, because the atoms technetium who came from the sun, carried an intolerable heat of the sun.

And then the last atom technetium, who had not yet completely cooled down and because of this almost lost his way, finally turned his stubborn tongue.

Most accurately, the area of ​​bone damage can be determined by the method of radioactive scanning using radioactive technetium, which is extremely important for resolving the issue of the volume of the operation.

Currently have kilogram quantities technetium and get it exclusively in the nuclear industry.

When commercial production and use began in the United States technetium, then the price for 1 g for several years fell from 17,000 to 90 dollars.

Talk about technetium as a possible catalyst for the chemical industry.

Segre was carrying a piece of irradiated molybdenum across the ocean ... But there was no certainty that a new element would be discovered in it, and could not be. There were "for", there were "against".

Falling on a molybdenum plate, fast deuteron penetrates quite deeply into its thickness. In some cases, one of the deuterons can merge with the nucleus of the molybdenum atom. For this, first of all, it is necessary that the deuteron energy is sufficient to overcome the forces of electrical repulsion. And this, by the way, means that the cyclotron must accelerate the deuteron to a speed of about 15 thousand km / sec. The compound nucleus formed by the fusion of a deuteron and a molybdenum nucleus is unstable. It must get rid of excess energy. Therefore, as soon as the fusion has taken place, a neutron is emitted from such a nucleus, and the former nucleus of the molybdenum atom turns into the nucleus of the atom of element No. 43.

b Deuteron - the nucleus of the isotope of hydrogen - deuterium. Deuteron used as particle bombardment in particle accelerators... The small cross section of neutron capture with the simultaneous efficiency of their slowing down (due to the small mass of deuterons, the neutron quickly loses energy when colliding with them) makes it possible to use deuterons (usually in the form of heavy water, the molecule of which contains two deuterons) to slow down fission neutrons in nuclear reactors.

Natural molybdenum ( Mo, №42) consists of six isotopes, which means, in principle, in an irradiated piece of molybdenum there could be atoms of six isotopes of the new element... This is important because some isotopes can be short-lived and therefore chemically elusive, especially since more than a month has passed since the time of irradiation. But other isotopes of the new element could "survive". Segre hoped to find them.

Let's say that on this, in fact, all the "pros" ended. There were much more “against”.

Ignorance of the half-lives of the isotopes of element 43 worked against the researchers. It could have happened that not a single isotope of element 43 has existed for more than a month. "Associated" nuclear reactions, in which radioactive isotopes of molybdenum, niobium and some other elements were formed, also worked against the researchers. It is very difficult to isolate the minimum amount of an unknown element from a radioactive multicomponent mixture. But that was exactly what Segre and his few assistants had to do.

Work started January 30, 1937... First of all, of course, we found out what particles are emitted by molybdenum, which has been in the cyclotron and crossed the ocean. He radiated(familiar to us) beta particles- fast nuclear electrons. When about 200 mg of irradiated molybdenum was dissolved in aqua regia, the beta activity of the solution was approximately the same as that of several tens of grams of uranium.

Previously unknown activity was discovered, it remained to determine who her "Culprit".

First, radioactive was chemically isolated from the solution phosphorus-32, formed from impurities that were in molybdenum. Then the same solution was "cross-examined" on the row and column of the Mendeleev table. Carriers of unknown activity could be isotopes:

• W niobium
• Zirconium
• Sh rhenia
• Ruthenium
• Finally, molybdenum itself

Only by proving that none of these elements are involved in the emitted electrons, it was possible to talk about the discovery of element No. 43 ...

Two methods were used as the basis for the work:

• Sh one - logical, method of elimination
• W another - widely used by chemists for the separation of mixtures method of "carriers", when a compound of this element or another, similar to it in chemical properties, is "slipped" into a solution containing, apparently, one or another element. And if the carrier substance is removed from the mixture, it carries away "related" atoms from there.

First of all excluded niobium... The solution was evaporated, and the resulting precipitate was again dissolved, this time in potassium hydroxide... Some elements remained in the undissolved part, but the unknown activity went into solution. And then they added to it potassium niobate, for stable niobium to "take away" the radioactive... If, of course, he was present in the solution. The niobium is gone - the activity remains. The same test exposed zirconium... But the zirconium fraction was also inactive.

Then precipitated molybdenum sulfide but the activity still remained in solution.

After that, the most difficult thing began: separate unknown activity and rhenium... After all, the impurities contained in the material of the "tooth" could turn not only into phosphorus-32, but also into radioactive isotopes of rhenium. This seemed all the more likely since it was the rhenium compound that carried the unknown activity out of the solution. And as the Noddacks found out, element # 43 should be more like rhenium than manganese or any other element. To separate unknown activity from rhenium meant finding a new element, because all other "candidates" had already been rejected.

Emilio Segre and his closest assistant Carlo Perier were able to do this. They found that in hydrochloric acid solutions (0.4 ... 5-normal), a carrier of unknown activity precipitates when hydrogen sulfide is passed through the solution. But at the same time rhenium falls out. If the precipitation is carried out from a more concentrated solution (10-normal), then rhenium precipitates completely, and the element carrying unknown activity only partially.

Finally, for control, Perrier set up experiments to separate the carrier of unknown activity from ruthenium and manganese. And then it became clear that beta particles can only be emitted by the nuclei of a new element.

b The new element was named technetium - from the Greek fenzyu, which means "artificial", meaning the discovery of an element by synthesis.

These experiments were completed in June 1937. So it was recreated the first of the chemical "dinosaurs" - elements that once existed in nature, but completely "extinct" as a result of radioactive decay.

Note that later it was possible to find some amount of technetium in the ground, formed as a result of the spontaneous fission of uranium... By the way, the same happened with neptunium and plutonium: at first item received artificially, and already after having studied it, we managed to find in nature.

Here it is necessary to draw a conclusion... Above, we presented a detailed course of work on the artificial production of the long-awaited element No. 43 by scientists. But now we can summarize in a nutshell:

• 1) piece of irradiated in the cyclotron molybdenum possessed strong radioactivity.
• 2) Emilio Segre and Carlo Perier found that this radioactivity cannot be attributed to either the molybdenum itself or the possible impurities of niobium and zirconium in the lump. But when working with rhenium, such radioactivity is observed.

Technetium (Technetium, Te) is a chemical element at number 43 in the periodic table.

In 1925, sensational reports appeared on the pages of chemical journals about the discovery of a new element included in the seventh group of the periodic table. The element was named "Mazury". Listen to the name: ma-zu-ri-y. Something in tune with the mazurka - a brilliant, cheerful Polish national dance, which received in the 19th century. fame in all European countries is heard in the name of the element. However, the newly discovered element was named by the German chemists Walter Noddak and Ida Take (who later became Ida Noddak) not in honor of the mazurka, a dance that emerged from the province of Mazovia. Mazury, it was named after the southern part of the districts of Gumbinnen and Königsberg in East Prussia, which have long been inhabited by Polish peasants.

The claim to discover a new element also turned out to be unfounded. Studies have shown that the authors rushed with their messages - various admixtures of other already known elements were taken for the new element.

The real discovery, or rather, the receipt of the element that occupies number 43 in the periodic system of D. I. Mendeleev, was carried out by the Italian scientist E. Segre and his assistant K. Perier in 1937. The new element was created by "shelling" molybdenum with deuterons - nuclei heavy isotope of hydrogen, accelerated at the cyclotron.

Obtained artificially, a new element in honor of the technical progress of the 20th century, as the brainchild of this progress, was named technetium. "Technikos" means "artificial" in Greek.

In 1950, the total amount of technetium around the globe was equal to ... one milligram. Currently, technetium is obtained as a waste of "production" during the operation of nuclear reactors.

The technetium content in uranium fission products reaches 6%. Now technetium, a man-made element, is not uncommon. By 1958, Parker and Martin, staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had at their disposal several grams of technetium, the compounds of which were widely used in the study of the mechanism of corrosion and the action of inhibitors - substances that delay it.

In terms of its chemical properties, technetium is similar to manganese and rhenium. It looks more like rhenium. The density of technetium is 11.5. Unlike rhenium, technetium is more resistant to chemicals. An empty cell in the periodic table with the inscription "ekamarganese", the existence of which DI Mendeleev predicted back in 1870, is now filled with an element whose properties exactly correspond to those predicted.

However, there is no technetium on Earth! The fact is that, being a radioactive element, it does not have long-lived isotopes. The most stable isotope, technetium, has a half-life of no more than 250,000 years. And since the age of the Earth is several billion years old, the technetium that originally existed on Earth has long outlived its age and should now be considered an "extinct" element. However, technetium has been detected spectroscopically on the Sun and some stars, which indicates its synthesis during the evolution of stars.

“The popular library of chemical elements contains information about all the elements known to mankind. Today there are 107 of them, some of which have been produced artificially.

Just as the properties of each of the "bricks of the universe" are not the same, so are their histories and destinies. Some elements such as copper and iron have been known since prehistoric times. The age of others is measured only by centuries, despite the fact that they, not yet discovered, have been used by humanity since time immemorial. Suffice it to recall the oxygen discovered in the century. Still others were discovered years ago, but only in our time have acquired paramount importance. These are uranium, aluminum, boron, lithium, beryllium. For the fourth, such as, for example, europium and scandium, a working biography is just beginning. Fifths are obtained artificially by methods of nuclear-physical synthesis of technetium, plutonium, mendelevium curchatovium ... In a word, how many elements, so many individuals, so many stories, so many unique combinations of properties.

The first book includes materials about the first 46, in the order of atomic numbers, elements, the second about all the rest.

Book:

How did technetium find

How did technetium find

Segre was carrying a piece of irradiated molybdenum across the ocean. But there was no certainty that a new element would be found in it, and could not be. There were "for", there were "against".

Falling on a molybdenum plate, a fast deuteron penetrates quite deeply into its thickness. In some cases, one of the deuterons can merge with the nucleus of the molybdenum atom. For this, first of all, it is necessary that the deuteron energy is sufficient to overcome the forces of electrical repulsion. This means that the cyclotron must accelerate the deuteron to a speed of about 15 thousand km / s. The compound nucleus formed by the fusion of a deuteron and a molybdenum nucleus is unstable. It must get rid of excess energy. Therefore, as soon as a fusion has taken place, a neutron escapes from such a nucleus, and the former nucleus of the molybdenum atom turns into the nucleus of the atom of element No. 43.

Natural molybdenum consists of six isotopes, which means that, in principle, an irradiated piece of molybdenum could contain atoms of six isotopes of the new element. This is important because some isotopes can be short-lived and therefore chemically elusive, especially since more than a month has passed since the time of irradiation. But other isotopes of the new element could "survive". Segre hoped to find them.

On this, in fact, all the "for" ended. There were much more “against”.

Ignorance of the half-lives of the isotopes of element 43 worked against the researchers. It could have happened that not a single isotope of element 43 has existed for more than a month. "Associated" nuclear reactions, in which radioactive isotopes of molybdenum, niobium and some other elements were formed, also worked against the researchers.

It is very difficult to isolate the minimum amount of an unknown element from a radioactive multicomponent mixture. But that was exactly what Segre and his few assistants had to do.

The work began on January 30, 1937. First of all, we found out what particles are emitted by molybdenum, which has been in the cyclotron and crossed the ocean. It emitted beta particles - fast nuclear electrons. When about 200 mg of irradiated molybdenum was dissolved in aqua regia, the beta activity of the solution was approximately the same as that of several tens of grams of uranium.

Previously unknown activity was discovered, it remained to determine who the "culprit" was.

First, radioactive phosphorus-32 was chemically isolated from the solution, formed from the impurities that were in the molybdenum. Then the same solution was "cross-examined" on the row and column of the Mendeleev table. Carriers of unknown activity could be isotopes of niobium, zirconium, rhenium, ruthenium, molybdenum itself, and finally. Only by proving that none of these elements were involved in the emitted electrons could one speak of the discovery of element 43.

Two methods were used as the basis of the work: one is a logical method of elimination, the other is the method of "carriers" widely used by chemists for separating mixtures, when a compound of this element is "slipped" into a solution containing, apparently, one or another element, or another, similar to it in chemical properties. And if the carrier substance is removed from the mixture, it carries away "related" atoms from there.

First of all, niobium was excluded. The solution was evaporated and the resulting precipitate was redissolved, this time in potassium hydroxide. Some elements remained in the undissolved part, but the unknown activity went into solution. And then potassium niobate was added to it, so that the stable niobium "took away" the radioactive one. If, of course, he was present in the solution. The niobium is gone - the activity remains. Zirconium was subjected to the same test. But the zirconium fraction was also inactive. Then molybdenum sulfide was precipitated, but the activity still remained in solution.

After that, the most difficult thing began: it was necessary to separate the unknown activity and rhenium. After all, the impurities contained in the material of the "tooth" could turn not only into phosphorus-32, but also into radioactive isotopes of rhenium. This seemed all the more likely since it was the rhenium compound that carried the unknown activity out of the solution. And as the Noddacks found out, element 43 should be more like rhenium than manganese or any other element. To separate unknown activity from rhenium meant finding a new element, because all other "candidates" had already been rejected.

Emilio Segre and his closest assistant Carlo Perier were able to do this. They found that in hydrochloric acid solutions (0.4-5 normal), a carrier of unknown activity precipitates when hydrogen sulfide is passed through the solution. But at the same time rhenium falls out. If precipitation is carried out from a more concentrated solution (10-normal), then rhenium precipitates completely, and the element carrying unknown activity only partially.

Finally, for control, Perrier set up experiments to separate the carrier of unknown activity from ruthenium and manganese. And then it became clear that beta particles can only be emitted by the nuclei of a new element, which was called technetium (from the Greek ???????, which means "artificial").

These experiments were completed in June 1937.

So the first of the chemical "dinosaurs" was recreated - elements that once existed in nature, but completely "extinct" as a result of radioactive decay.

Later, it was possible to find in the ground extremely small amounts of technetium, formed as a result of the spontaneous fission of uranium. The same, by the way, happened with neptunium and plutonium: at first the element was obtained artificially, and only then, having studied it, they were able to find it in nature.

Now technetium is obtained from uranium-35 fission fragments in nuclear reactors. True, it is not easy to isolate it from the mass of fragments. There are about 10 g of element No. 43 per kilogram of fragments. Basically, this is the isotope technetium-99, the half-life of which is 212 thousand years. Thanks to the accumulation of technetium in the reactors, it was possible to determine the properties of this element, to obtain it in pure form, explore quite a few of its compounds. In them, technetium exhibits valency 2+, 3+ and 7+. Just like rhenium, technetium is a heavy metal (density 11.5 g / cm 3), refractory (melting point 2140 ° C), chemically resistant.

Despite the fact that technetium is one of the rarest and most expensive metals (much more expensive than gold), it has already brought practical benefits.

ARTICLE THREE.
Alchemical elements. Elements whose names are associated with their properties or opening method.

It is believed that in the XIII-XVII centuries alchemists discovered five new elements (although their elementary character was proved much later). We are talking about phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth and zinc. An amazing coincidence - four of the five elements are in the same group. If we take into account that the discovery of zinc was, in fact, a rediscovery (metallic zinc was smelted back in Ancient India and Rome), then it turns out that alchemists discovered only the elements of the fifth group.

Zinc
The name of the metal was introduced into the Russian language by M.V. Lomonosov - from German Zink... It probably comes from the ancient Germanic tinka- white, indeed, the most common zinc preparation - ZnO oxide (“philosophical wool” of alchemists) has a white color.

Phosphorus
When in 1669 the Hamburg alchemist Henning Brand discovered the white modification of phosphorus, he was amazed by its glow in the dark (in fact, it is not phosphorus that glows, but its vapors when they are oxidized by atmospheric oxygen). The new substance has received a name, which in translation from Greek means "carrying light". So "traffic light" is linguistically the same as "Lucifer". By the way, the Greeks called Phosphoros the morning Venus, which foreshadowed the sunrise.

Arsenic
The Russian name is most likely associated with the poison with which the mice were poisoned, among other things, the color of gray arsenic resembles a mouse. Latin arsenicum goes back to the Greek "arsenikos" - masculine, probably due to the strong action of the compounds of this element. And for what they were used, thanks to fiction, everyone knows.

Antimony
In chemistry, this element has three names. Russian word“Antimony” comes from the Turkish “surme” - rubbing or blackening of eyebrows in ancient times with paint for this was finely ground black antimony sulfide Sb2S3 (“You fast fast, don’t antimony eyebrows.” - M. Tsvetaeva). The Latin name of the element ( stibium) comes from the Greek "stibi" - a cosmetic product for eyeliner and the treatment of eye diseases. Salts of antimony acid are called antimonites, the name may be associated with the Greek “antemone” - a flower of splices of needle-like crystals of antimony luster Sb2S2 look like flowers.

Bismuth
This is probably a distorted German „ weisse Masse“- white mass since antiquity white with a reddish tinge nuggets of bismuth have been known. By the way, in Western European languages ​​(except German), the name of the element begins with "b" ( bismuth). Replacing Latin "b" with Russian "b" is a common phenomenon Abel- Abel, Basil- Basil, basilisk- basilisk, Barbara- Barbara, barbarism- barbarity, Benjamin- Benjamin, Bartholomew- Bartholomew, Babylon- Babylon, Byzantium- Byzantium, Lebanon- Lebanon, Libya- Libya, Baal- Baal, alphabet- the alphabet ... Perhaps the translators believed that the Greek "beta" is the Russian "v".

Elements named by their properties or the properties of their compounds.

Fluorine
For a long time, only derivatives of this element were known, including an extremely corrosive hydrofluoric (hydrofluoric) acid, which dissolves even glass and leaves very severe, difficult-to-heal burns on the skin. The nature of this acid was established in 1810 by the French physicist and chemist A.M. Ampere; he proposed a name for the corresponding element (which was allocated much later, in 1886): from the Greek. "Fluoros" - destruction, death.

Chlorine
In Greek, "chloros" - yellow-green This is the color of this gas. The same root is in the word "chlorophyll" (from the Greek "chloros" and "phillon" - leaf).

Bromine
In Greek, "bromos" is fetid. The suffocating smell of bromine is similar to that of chlorine.

Osmium
In Greek, "osme" is a smell. Although the metal itself does not smell, the very volatile osmium tetroxide OsO4 has a rather nasty smell, similar to the smell of chlorine and garlic.

Iodine
In Greek, "iodes" is purple. This is the color of the vapors of this element, as well as its solutions in non-solvating solvents (alkanes, carbon tetrachloride, etc.)

Chromium
In Greek, "chrome" - color, color. Many chromium compounds are brightly colored: oxides - in green, black and red, hydrated Cr (III) salts - in green and violet, and chromates and dichromates - in yellow and orange.

Iridium
The element is named essentially the same as chrome; in Greek "iris" ("iridos") - a rainbow, Iris - the goddess of the rainbow, the messenger of the gods. Indeed, crystalline IrCl is copper-red, IrCl2 is dark green, IrCl3 is olive green, IrCl4 is brown, IrF6 is yellow, IrS, Ir2O3 and IrBr4 are blue, IrO2 is black. The words "irisation" are of the same origin - the iridescent color of the surface of some minerals, the edges of clouds, as well as "iris" (plant), "iris diaphragm" and even "irit" - inflammation of the iris of the eye.

Rhodium
The element was discovered in 1803 by the English chemist W.G. Wollaston. He dissolved native South American platinum in aqua regia; after neutralizing the excess acid with caustic soda and separating platinum and palladium, he was left with a pink-red solution of sodium hexachloridate Na3RhCl6, from which the new metal was isolated. Its name is derived from the Greek words "rodon" - rose and "rodeos" - rose-red.

Praseodymium and neodymium
In 1841 K. Mosander divided the "lanthanum earth" into two new "earths" (that is, oxides). One of them was lanthanum oxide, the other was very similar to it and received the name "didymia" - from the Greek. Didymos is a twin. In 1882 K. Auer von Welsbach was able to divide it into components and didymia. It turned out that this is a mixture of oxides of two new elements. One of them gave salt Green colour, and Auer called this element praseodymium, that is, the "green twin" (from the Greek "prasidos" - light green). The second element gave the salt a pink-red color, it was called neodymium, that is, the "new twin".

Thallium
The English physicist and chemist William Crookes, a specialist in the field of spectral analysis, studying the wastes of sulfuric acid production, wrote on March 7, 1861 in a laboratory journal: “The green line in the spectrum, given by some portions of selenium residues, is not due to either sulfur, selenium, tellurium; no calcium, barium, strontium; nor potassium, sodium, lithium ". Indeed, this was the line of a new element, the name of which is derived from the Greek thallos- green branch. Crookes approached the choice of the name romantically: "I chose this name because the green line corresponds to the spectrum and echoes the specific brightness of the fresh color of plants at the present time."

Indium
In 1863, the German "Journal of Practical Chemistry" published a message from F. Reich, director of the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Freiberg Mining Academy, and his assistant, T. Richter, about the discovery of a new metal. While analyzing local polymetallic ores in search of recently discovered thallium, the authors "noticed a hitherto unknown indigo blue line." And then they write: "We received such a bright, sharp and stable blue line in the spectroscope that we did not hesitate to come to the conclusion about the existence of an unknown metal, which we propose to call indium." The salt concentrates of the new element were detected even without a spectroscope - by the intense blue coloration of the burner flame. This color was very similar to the color of the indigo dye, hence the name of the element.

Rubidium and Cesium
These are the first chemical elements discovered in the early 60s of the 18th century by G. Kirchhoff and R. Bunsen using the method they developed - spectral analysis. Cesium is named by the bright blue line in the spectrum (Latin caesius - blue), rubidium - by the lines in the red part of the spectrum (Latin. rubidus- Red). Researchers processed 44 tons to obtain several grams of new alkali metal salts mineral water from Durkheim and over 180 kg of lepidolite mineral - aluminosilicate of composition K (Li, Al) 3 (Si, Al) 4O10 (F, OH) 2, in which rubidium and cesium oxides are present as impurities.

Hydrogen and oxygen
These names are literal translation into Russian from Latin ( hydrogenium, oxygenium). They were invented by A.L. Lavoisier, who mistakenly believed that oxygen "gives birth" to all acids. It would be more logical to do the opposite: to call oxygen hydrogen (this element also “generates” water), and hydrogen - oxygen, since it is a part of all acids.

Nitrogen
The French name for the element (azote) was also proposed by Lavoisier - from the Greek negative prefix "a" and the word "zoe" - life (the same root in the word "zoology" and its derivatives - zoo, zoogeography, zoomorphism, zooplankton, zootechnician, etc. .). The name is not entirely apt: nitrogen, although not suitable for breathing, is absolutely necessary for life, since it is part of any protein, any nucleic acid. Same origin and German name Stickstoff- an asphyxiant substance. The root "azo" is present in the international names "azide", "azo compound", "azine" and others. But the Latin nitrogenium and english nitrogen come from the Hebrew "neter" (Greek "nitron", lat. nitrum); so in ancient times they called natural alkali - soda, and later - saltpeter.

Radium and radon
The names common to all languages ​​come from Latin words radius- beam and radiare- emit rays. So the Curies, who discovered radium, designated its ability to emit invisible particles. The same origin of the word "radio", "radiation" and their countless derivatives (in dictionaries you can find more than a hundred such words, ranging from the obsolete radio tape and ending with modern radioecology). When radium decays, a radioactive gas is released, which was called radium emanation (from lat. emanatio- outflow), and then radon - by analogy with the names of a number of other noble gases (or maybe just by the initial and final letters of the English name proposed by E. Rutherford radium emanation).

Actinium and protactinium
The name of these radioactive elements is given by analogy with radium: in Greek "actis" - radiation, light. Although protactinium was discovered in 1917, that is, 18 years later than actinium, in the so-called natural radioactive series of actinium (which begins with uranium-235) protactinium is earlier; hence its name: from the Greek "protos" - the first, initial, initial.

Astatine
This element was obtained in 1940 artificially - irradiation of bismuth with alpha particles at the cyclotron. But only seven years later, the authors of the discovery - American physicists D. Corson, K. Mackenzie and E. Segre gave this element a name derived from the Greek word "astatos" - unstable, wobbly (of the same root the word "statics" and many of its derivatives) ... The longest-lived isotope of the element has a half-life of 7.2 hours - then it seemed like very little.

Argon
The noble gas, isolated from the air in 1894 by the English scientists J.W. Rayleigh and W. Ramsay, did not enter into reactions with any substance, for which it got its name - from the Greek negative prefix "a" and the word "ergon" - deed, activity. From this root - and the extra-systemic unit of energy erg, and the words "energy", "energetic", etc. The name "argon" was suggested by the chemist Mazan, who chaired the meeting of the British Association in Oxford, where Rayleigh and Ramsay made a presentation on the discovery of a new gas. In 1904, chemist Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of argon and other noble gases in the atmosphere, and physicist John William Strett (Lord Rayleigh) in the same year and, in fact, received the Nobel Prize in physics for the same discovery. This is probably the only case of its kind. While argon confirms its name, not a single stable compound has been obtained, except for the inclusion compound with phenol, hydroquinone, acetone.

Platinum
When the Spaniards in America in the middle of the 16th century met a new metal for themselves, very similar to silver (in Spanish plata), they gave it a somewhat disparaging name platina, literally "small silver", "silver". This is explained by the refractoriness of platinum (about 1770 ° C), which did not lend itself to remelting.

Molybdenum
In Greek "molybdos" - lead, hence the Latin molibdaena- this is how the lead luster of PbS was called in the Middle Ages, and the rarer molybdenum luster (MoS2), and other similar minerals that left a black mark on paper, including graphite and lead itself (not without reason in German a pencil - Bleistift, that is, a lead rod). At the end of the 18th century, a new metal was isolated from the luster of molybdenum (molybdenite); at the suggestion of J.Ya. Berzelius was named molybdenum.

Tungsten
A mineral with this name has long been known in Germany. It is a mixed iron-manganese tungstate x FeWO4 y MnWO4. Because of its severity, it was often mistaken for tin ore, from which, however, no metals were smelted. The suspicious attitude of miners to this yet another "devilish" ore (remember nickel and cobalt) was reflected in its name: Wolf in German - wolf. What is "ram"? There is such a version: in ancient German Ramm- ram; it turns out that the evil spirits "devour" the metal, like a wolf of a ram. But we can also assume something else: in the South German, Swiss and Austrian dialects German language and now there is a verb rahm(read "ram"), which means "skim the cream", "take the best part for yourself." Then, instead of "wolves - sheep", we get another version: the "wolf" takes the best part for itself and the miners have nothing left. The word "tungsten" is in the German and Russian languages, while in English and French only the sign W remained from it in the formulas and the name of the mineral wolframite; in other cases - only "tungsten". So once Berzelius called a heavy mineral, from which K.V. Scheele isolated tungsten oxide in 1781. In swedish tung sten- heavy stone, hence the name of the metal. By the way, later this mineral (CaWO4) was named scheelite in honor of the scientist.

Items whose names are associated with the way they were opened.

Lithium
When, in 1817, a student of Berzelius, the Swedish chemist I.A. Arfvedson discovered in one of the minerals a new "fire-permanent alkali of a still unknown nature", his teacher suggested calling it "lithion" - from the Greek "lithos" - a stone, since this alkali, in contrast to the already known sodium and potassium alkali, was for the first time found in the "kingdom" of stones. The element was named “lithium”. The same Greek root is found in the words "lithosphere", "lithography" (an imprint from a stone form) and others.

Sodium
In the 18th century, the name "natron" (see "Nitrogen") was assigned to "mineral alkali" - caustic soda. Nowadays in chemistry "soda lime" is a mixture of sodium and calcium hydroxides. So sodium and nitrogen - two completely dissimilar elements - have, it turns out, in common (based on the Latin names nitrogenium and natrium) origin. English and French element names ( sodium) originated, probably from the Arabic "suvwad" - as the Arabs called the coastal marine plant, the ash of which, unlike most other plants, does not contain potassium carbonate, but sodium, that is, soda.

Potassium
In Arabic, "al-kali" is a product obtained from plant ash, that is, potassium carbonate. Until now, villagers use this ash to feed plants with potassium; for example, potassium in sunflower ash is more than 30%. English name of the element potassium, like the Russian "potash", is borrowed from the languages ​​of the Germanic group; in German and Dutch ash- ash, pot- a pot, that is, potash, is “ash from a pot”. Previously, potassium carbonate was obtained by evaporating ash extract in vats.

Calcium
Romans by word calx(genus case calcis) called all soft stones. Over time, this name was stuck only for limestone (not without reason chalk in English - chalk). The same word was used for lime - the product of calcination of calcium carbonate. Alchemists called the calcination process itself. Hence soda ash - anhydrous sodium carbonate, obtained by calcining crystalline carbonate Na2CO3 · 10H2O. For the first time, calcium was obtained from lime in 1808 by G. Davy, who also gave the name to the new element. Calcium is a relative of the calculator: the Romans calculus(diminutive of calx) - small pebble, pebble. Such pebbles were used for simple calculations using a board with slots - the abacus, the ancestor of Russian abacus. All these words have left their mark on European languages. So, in English calx- scale, ash, as well as lime; calcimine- lime solution for whitewashing; calcination- calcination, roasting; calculus- kidney stone, bladder, as well as calculus (differential and integral) in higher mathematics; calculate- calculate, calculate. In modern Italian, which is closest to Latin, calcolo is both a computation and a stone.

Barium
In 1774, the Swedish chemists K.V. Scheele and Yu.G. Hahn isolated a new “earth” from the mineral heavy spar (BaSO4), which was called barite; in Greek "baros" - heaviness, "baris" - heavy. When a new metal was isolated from this "earth" (BaO) in 1808 by electrolysis, it was named barium. So barium also has unexpected and practically unrelated “relatives”; among them - a barometer, a barograph, a pressure chamber, baritone - a low ("heavy") voice, baryons - heavy elementary particles.

Boron
The Arabs called many salts with the word "burak" white, soluble in water. One of these salts is borax, natural sodium tetraborate Na2B4O7 · 10H2O. Boric acid was obtained from borax in 1702 by calcining, and from it in 1808 L. Gay-Lussac and L. Thénard independently isolated a new element, boron.

Aluminum
It was discovered by the physicist and chemist H.K. Oersted in 1825. The name comes from Latin alumen(genus case aluminis) - the so-called alum (double potassium-aluminum sulfate KAl (SO4) 2 12H2O), they were used as a mordant for dyeing fabrics. The Latin name probably goes back to the Greek "halme" - brine, brine. It is curious that in England aluminum is aluminum, and in the USA - aluminum.

Lanthanum
In 1794, the Finnish chemist J. Gadolin discovered a new "yttrium earth" in the cerite mineral. Nine years later, in the same mineral, J. Berzelius and V. Hisinger found another "earth", which they called cerium. From these “lands”, oxides of a number of rare-earth elements were subsequently isolated. One of them, opened in 1839, at the suggestion of Berzelius, was named lanthanum - from the Greek. “Lanthanaine” - to hide: a new element “hid” from chemists for decades.

Silicon
The Russian name of the element given to him by G.I. Hess in 1831, comes from the Old Slavonic word "flint" - a hard stone. The same is the origin of Latin silicium(and international "silicate"): silex- stone, cobblestone, as well as cliff, rock. It is clear that there are no rocks made of soft stones.

Zirconium
The name comes from the Persian "tsargun" - painted in golden color. One of the varieties of the zircon mineral (ZrSiO4) has this color - precious stone hyacinth. Zirconium dioxide ("zircon earth") was isolated from Ceylon zircon in 1789 by the German chemist M.G. Klaproth.

Technetium
The name reflects the artificial production of this element: trace amounts of technetium were synthesized in 1936 by irradiating molybdenum in a cyclotron with deuterium nuclei. In Greek “technetos” means “artificial”.

"Chemistry and Life - XXI Century"