Caesium or cesium

Transcript :

Chemistry in its element: caesium

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You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

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Meera Senthilingam

This week, love at first sight.

Peter Wothers.

Peter Wothers

I've been asked on a number of occasions what my favourite element is. I used to think either oxygen or hydrogen - both so much fun - but that was until my sample of caesium arrived, when it was love at first sight.

Now many people think it's slightly odd having a favourite element, but when they too see my caesium, they understand why it's so special. Who wouldn't be attracted to this beautiful element?

For starters, there are only three metallic elements that are not silver-coloured.

Cesium symbol

Two are well-known and fairly obvious - gold and copper. The third most people would never guess, it's caesium. Apparently, the beautiful gold diminishes if the sample is extremely pure since tiny traces of captured oxygen give it the colour.

This is a little disappointing - its colour is quite stunning a

how is cesium used in vacuum tubes

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