Francium
🔬 In Your World
Francium is the second-rarest element that occurs in nature, after astatine. It is so unstable that its most durable isotope has a half-life of only 22 minutes. It is estimated that there is never more than one ounce of francium on Earth at any given time. Because of its extreme instability and rarity, it has no commercial applications and is used only for scientific research in chemistry and atomic structure.
📖 The Discovery Story
Francium was the last natural element to be discovered. In 1939, French physicist Marguerite Perey discovered it while studying the decay of actinium-227 at the Curie Institute in Paris. She noticed that the actinium emitted unexpected alpha particles, leading her to identify a new element. She named it "francium" in honor of her home country, France. She was a student of Marie Curie, and francium was the second element (after polonium) to be discovered at the Curie Institute.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | 27 °C / 80.6 °F (estimated) |
| Boiling Point | 677 °C / 1251 °F (estimated) |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 7s¹ |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Francium is intensely radioactive. The heat from its rapid decay would instantly vaporize any visible quantity of the metal. It has never been viewed in bulk. All handling is done on a microscopic scale in specialized nuclear laboratories, and its properties are largely extrapolated from its position on the periodic table rather than direct observation.