Francium 101

Francium was discovered in 1939 by Marguerite Perey.

 

In 1935, Perey read a research paper on the emission of beta particles from a sample of actinium. She became curious and started experimenting with actinium at the Curie institute in Paris, France. Her persistence payed off, and she noticed that 1% of actinium's radioactivity was caused by alpha decay.

She continued with her experiments until in 1939, she concluded that she had found a new element. At the time, it was called actinium-k because it was created through the decay of actinium, as well as eka-caesium because it was the the only element in group one more volatile than caesium. In 1946, she proposed the name francium in honor of France, her home country. The name was made official by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in 1949 and has been used ever since.

 

Left: An image of Marguerite Perey [3]