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What
the name means:
The name Astatine derives from the Greek
word astatos, meaning “unstable”. The –ine
was used to stay in line with the names of
the other Group VII elements – the
halogens.
Who
identified astatine?
Astatine was identified in 1940 by Dale
Raymond Corson, Kenneth Ross Mackenzie, and
Emilio Segrč working at the Berkeley
Laboratory of the University of California,
USA. The team bombarded bismuth atoms with
a
(alpha) particles (helium nuclei).
About astatine:
Astatine is a radio active element with a
very short half life (around 8 hours).
Using the mass spectrometer it is possible
to show that astatine has properties close
to those of iodine. However, astatine also
shows similarities to polonium and bismuth. |