Chemical Element: promethium
(Modern Latin: named for the Greek god Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven [the sun] for mankind; radioactive metal rare earth)
Chemical-Element Information
Symbol: PmAtomic number: 61
Year discovered: 1945
Discovered by: Charles Du Bois Coryell (born 1912), J.A. Marinsky, and L.E. Glendenin.
- A number of investigators in the past had claimed to have proven the existence of element 61 in naturally occurring rare earths; among the names they applied were illimium and florentium.
- A group at Ohio State University (USA) claimed element 61 in experiments involving its synthesis in a cyclotron, but again the evidence did not satisfy everyone.
- In 1947, Marinsky, Glendenin, and Coryell, at the Oak Ridge, Tennesee, research site, made the first chemical identification of promethium by use of ion-exchange chromatography on residues in a nuclear reactor.
- The name of promethium is derived from Prometheus, who in Greek mythology stole fire from heaven (the gods) and gave it to mankind; an appropriate name, since the element comes from the fierce fires of the atomic furnace.
- Although promethium salts have been used for miniature batteries, the main use of the element is for research.
Name in other languages:
French: prométhium
German: Promethium
Italian: prometio
Spanish: prometio
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.