Cesium

Cesium is the most reactive metal in the world although some people think that francium may be more reactive, but it is to rare to test the theory. This silvery gold metal has many commercial purposes that help with a wide variety of jobs.

Properties

Cesium is a shiny silver-gold metal that is highly reactive to water, even moisture in the air. It is a very soft metal that is also ductile which means that it can be easily drawn into thin wires. Cesium is so reactive that it can only be stored in two ways. either in a liquid such as kerosene or mineral oil or in a sealed glass tube with an atmosphere of either argon or hydrogen. Cesium also has isotopes such as cesium-133 which is used in atomic clocks and cesium-137 which is used in many thing like nuclear densometers. ^[1]

Occurrences

Cesium is typically found around the earths crust in small amounts of low concentration. These small amounts can be found in sedimentary rocks. granites, and sea water. In order to get even a small amount of cesium it would takes a lot of work to harvest it. Cesium inn the earths crust is estimated to be 1 to 3 parts per million and is often found in clusters with other metals. ^[2]

Uses

Cesium 133 an isotope of cesium in atomic clocks which are the most accurate clocks in the world. Another isotope of cesium, cesium 137 is used in nuclear densometer which are use for measuring the density and moisture content of the ground in a certain area. ^[3]

Other

Video

Cesium the most reactive metal on earth <youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytxx95g-kiA>

References

• Element
• Alkali metal