polonium

210Po is an alpha emitter that has a half-life of 138.376 days; it decays directly to its daughter isotope 206Pb. A milligram of 210Po emits about as many alpha particles per second as 4.5 grams of 226Ra. A few curies (1 curie equals 37 gigabecquerels) of 210Po emit a blue glow which is caused by excitation of surrounding air. A single gram of 210Po generates 140 watts of power.Because it emits many alpha particles, which are stopped within a very short distance in dense media and release their energy, 210Po has been used as a lightweight heat source to power thermoelectric cells in artificial satellites; for instance, 210Po heat source was also used in each of the Lunokhod rovers deployed on the surface of the Moon, to keep their internal components warm during the lunar nights.[ Some anti-static brushes contain up to 500 microcuries (20 MBq) of 210Po as a source of charged particles for neutralizing static electricity in materials like photographic film.210Po was also used as a murder weapon in the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning.

The majority of the time 210Po decays by emission of an alpha particle only, not by emission of an alpha particle and a gamma ray. About one in 100,000 alpha emissions causes an excitation in the nucleus which then results in the emission of a gamma ray.This low gamma ray production rate (and the short range of alpha particles) makes it difficult to find and identify this isotope. Rather than gamma ray spectroscopy, alpha spectroscopy is the best method of measuring this isotope.

Solid state form

The alpha form of solid polonium has a simple cubic crystal structure with an edge length of 335.2 picometres.

The beta form of polonium is rhombohedral; it has been reported in the chemical literature, along with the alpha form, several times. A picture of it is present on the web.

Two papers report X-ray diffraction experiments on polonium metal.The first report of the crystal structure of polonium was done using electron diffraction.


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