Chemistry: The Elements and Their Uses
Actinium
Actinium was discovered in 1899 by the French chemist Andre Loius Debierne. The element's name comes from the Greek word "actinos". which means "ray". This element is found in uranium ores to the extent of 2 parts to every 10 billion parts of uranium. Actinium is dangerously radioactive. The chemical behavior of actinium is similar to that of the rare earths, particularly lanthanum. It is found naturally in uranium ores and actinium is 150 times more radioactive than radium.
Aluminum
From "Alumen" or alum. Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish chemist, first prepared impure aluminum in 1825. Aluminum is a silvery-white metal with many desirable characteristics. It is light, nontoxic, nonmagnetic and non-sparking. It is somewhat decorative. It is easily formed, machined, and cast. Pure aluminum is soft and lacks strength, but alloys with small amounts of copper, magnesium, silicon, manganese and other elements have very useful properties. Aluminum is an abundant element in the earth's crust, but it is not found free in nature. The Bayer process is used to refine aluminum from bauxite, an aluminum ore.
Americium
From the word "American". It was discovered in 1944 and 1945 by the American physicist Glenn Seaborg and his associates at the University of Chicago.
Americium appears to be more malleable than uranium or neptunium and americium tarnishes slowly in dry air at room temperature. Americium is the radioactive rare earth metal which must be handled with care to avoid contact, since it is heavy a and y emitter. It is named after America. Tha a activity of Am is about three times that of radium.
Antimony
The elements name comes from the Greek words "anti monos" meaning "not alone". Antimony was probably discovered by the German alchemist Basil Valentine about 1450. It was certainly known by about 1600. Metallic antimony is an extremely brittle metal of a flaky, cystalline texture. It is bluish white and has a mettalic luster. It is not acted on by air temperature but burns brilliantly when heated with the formation of white fumes.
