Chemical Element: francium
(Modern Latin: chemical element; named for France; radioactive metal)
Chemical-Element Information
Symbol: FrAtomic number: 87
Year discovered: 1939
Discovered by: Marguerite Perey (1909-1975), a French physicist.
- Francium was discovered in 1939 by Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute in Paris, (France) and its existence was predicted by Mendeléyev during the 1870’s.
- Since its properties should track those of cesium/caesium rather closely, he called it eka-caesium.
- Perey discovered a type of beta activity that was not quite like that of any other known isotope while working with the radioactive element actinium.
- She tracked it down and found that it resulted from the breakdown of an isotope of element number 87 which is now called, “francium”.
Name in other languages:
French: francium
German: Francium
Italian: francio
Spanish: francio
Information about other elements may be seen at this Chemical Elements List.
A special unit about words that include chemo-, chem- may be seen here.