Caesium

Caesium, ₅₅Cs
Caesium
Pronunciation	/ˈsiːziəm/ (SEE-zee-əm)
Alternative name	cesium (US)
Appearance	pale gold
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Cs)
	132.90545196±0.00000006; 132.91±0.01 (abridged);
Caesium in the periodic table
	xenon ← caesium → barium
Atomic number (Z)	55
Group	group 1: hydrogen and alkali metals
Period	period 6
Block	s-block
Electron configuration	[Xe] 6s1
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 18, 8, 1
Physical properties
Phase at STP	solid
Melting point	301.7 K (28.5 °C, 83.3 °F)
Boiling point	944 K (671 °C, 1240 °F)
Density (at 20° C)	1.886 g/cm3
when liquid (at m.p.)	1.843 g/cm3
Critical point	1938 K, 9.4 MPa
Heat of fusion	2.09 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization	63.9 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity	32.210 J/(mol·K)
Atomic properties
Oxidation states	−1, +1 (a strongly basic oxide)
Electronegativity	Pauling scale: 0.79
Ionization energies	1st: 375.7 kJ/mol ; 2nd: 2234.3 kJ/mol ; 3rd: 3400 kJ/mol ; ;
Atomic radius	empirical: 265 pm
Covalent radius	244±11 pm
Van der Waals radius	343 pm
	Spectral lines of caesium
Other properties
Natural occurrence	primordial
Crystal structure	body-centred cubic (bcc) (cI2)
Lattice constant	a = 616.2 pm (at 20 °C)
Thermal expansion	92.6×10−6/K (at 20 °C)
Thermal conductivity	35.9 W/(m⋅K)
Electrical resistivity	205 nΩ⋅m (at 20 °C)
Magnetic ordering	paramagnetic
Young's modulus	1.7 GPa
Bulk modulus	1.6 GPa
Mohs hardness	0.2
Brinell hardness	0.14 MPa
CAS Number	7440-46-2
History
Naming	from Latin caesius 'bluish grey', for its spectral colours
Discovery	Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff (1860)
First isolation	Carl Setterberg (1882)
Isotopes of caesium v; e;
β−	134Ba
	Category: Caesium; view; talk; edit; \| references

Caesium (IUPAC spelling;^[9] cesium in American English)^{[note 1]} is a chemical element; it has symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of 28.5 °C (83.3 °F; 301.6 K), which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at or near room temperature.^{[note 2]} Caesium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of rubidium and potassium. It is pyrophoric and reacts with water even at −116 °C (−177 °F). It is the least electronegative element, with a value of 0.79 on the Pauling scale. It has only one stable isotope, caesium-133. Caesium is mined mostly from pollucite. Caesium-137, a fission product, is extracted from waste produced by nuclear reactors. It has the largest atomic radius of all elements whose radii have been measured or calculated, at about 260 picometers.

The German chemist Robert Bunsen and physicist Gustav Kirchhoff discovered caesium in 1860 by the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy. The first small-scale applications for caesium were as a "getter" in vacuum tubes and in photoelectric cells. Caesium is widely used in highly accurate atomic clocks. In 1967, the International System of Units began using a specific hyperfine transition of neutral caesium-133 atoms to define the basic unit of time, the second.

Since the 1990s, the largest application of the element has been as caesium formate for drilling fluids, but it has a range of applications in the production of electricity, in electronics, and in chemistry. The radioactive isotope caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years and is used in medical applications, industrial gauges, and hydrology. Nonradioactive caesium compounds are only mildly toxic, but the pure metal's tendency to react explosively with water means that caesium is considered a hazardous material, and the radioisotopes present a significant health and environmental hazard.

^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Caesium". CIAAW. 2013.
^ Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (4 May 2022). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.
^ ^a ^b ^c Arblaster, John W. (2018). Selected Values of the Crystallographic Properties of Elements. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM International. ISBN 978-1-62708-155-9.
^ Haynes, William M., ed. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (92nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 4.121. ISBN 1-4398-5511-0.
^ Dye, J. L. (1979). "Compounds of Alkali Metal Anions". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 18 (8): 587–598. doi:10.1002/anie.197905871.
^ "Magnetic susceptibility of the elements and inorganic compounds". Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (PDF) (87th ed.). CRC press. ISBN 0-8493-0487-3. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
^ "NIST Radionuclide Half-Life Measurements". NIST. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
^ "IUPAC Periodic Table of Elements". International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
^ International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (2005). Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2005). Cambridge (UK): RSC–IUPAC. ISBN 0-85404-438-8. pp. 248–49. Electronic version..
^ Coghill, Anne M.; Garson, Lorrin R., eds. (2006). The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-8412-3999-9.
^ Coplen, T. B.; Peiser, H. S. (1998). "History of the recommended atomic-weight values from 1882 to 1997: a comparison of differences from current values to the estimated uncertainties of earlier values" (PDF). Pure Appl. Chem. 70 (1): 237–257. doi:10.1351/pac199870010237. S2CID 96729044. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 May 2011.
^ OED entry for "caesium". Second edition, 1989; online version June 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1888.

Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

[1] "Standard Atomic Weights: Caesium". CIAAW. 2013.

[CIAAW2021-2] Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (4 May 2022). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.

[Arblaster_2018-3] Arblaster, John W. (2018). Selected Values of the Crystallographic Properties of Elements. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM International. ISBN 978-1-62708-155-9.

[b92-4] Haynes, William M., ed. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (92nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 4.121. ISBN 1-4398-5511-0.

[caeside-5] Dye, J. L. (1979). "Compounds of Alkali Metal Anions". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 18 (8): 587–598. doi:10.1002/anie.197905871.

[magnet-6] "Magnetic susceptibility of the elements and inorganic compounds". Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (PDF) (87th ed.). CRC press. ISBN 0-8493-0487-3. Retrieved 26 September 2010.

[NUBASE2020-7] Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.

[isotope-8] "NIST Radionuclide Half-Life Measurements". NIST. Retrieved 13 March 2011.

[9] "IUPAC Periodic Table of Elements". International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

[10] International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (2005). Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2005). Cambridge (UK): RSC–IUPAC. ISBN 0-85404-438-8. pp. 248–49. Electronic version..

[11] Coghill, Anne M.; Garson, Lorrin R., eds. (2006). The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-8412-3999-9.

[12] Coplen, T. B.; Peiser, H. S. (1998). "History of the recommended atomic-weight values from 1882 to 1997: a comparison of differences from current values to the estimated uncertainties of earlier values" (PDF). Pure Appl. Chem. 70 (1): 237–257. doi:10.1351/pac199870010237. S2CID 96729044. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 May 2011.

[13] OED entry for "caesium". Second edition, 1989; online version June 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1888.

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