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Above: A small sample of cesium in water. Francium will have similar effects because it is in the same group, but francium will be more explosive because it has greater atomic mass. [6]
Physical Properties
Francium is presumed to have a silvery and metallic surface, but it han't been confirmed because francium is found in very small quantities.
Chemical Properties
Francium is a very radioactive element because it is so heavy. The high number of protons in its nucleus push away from each other because they all have positive charge.
Different isotopes of francium decay at different rates. Francium 223 is the isotope of francium with the longest half life. It is 21.8 minutes long. Francium 212 is a close second with a half life 19 minutes. There are also francium isotopes with significantly shorter half lives. One such example is Francium 216 as it has a half life of merely 0.7 microseconds.
Uses
Francium has no commercial uses because it is very rare and unstable. However, it has been used for research purposes. In August, 2015, physicists were able to use a machine to capture a francium atom to analyze its nucleus.
Left: The machine used by physicists to caputure francium atoms and to analyze their nuclei. [7]
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