Element Facts
SYMBOL
Fr
ATOMIC NO.
87
ATOMIC WEIGHT
223
CATEGORY
Alkali Metal
PERIOD
Period 7
GROUP
Group 1
Origins
Francium was discovered in 1939 by Marguerite Perey at the Curie Institute in Paris — she was the last person to discover a naturally occurring element. Perey identified it as a radioactive decay product of actinium-227 while purifying actinium samples. She named it after France. It was Perey’s name that stuck, though she only became the first female member of the Académie des sciences years later in 1962.
Modern Applications
Francium has no commercial or industrial applications. It is used in tiny quantities in atomic physics research, particularly experiments studying atomic structure and parity non-conservation (fundamental symmetry violations in quantum mechanics). Cold francium atoms have been trapped in magneto-optical traps at SUNY Stony Brook for such research.
At the Yard
Why QuickStop Metals doesn’t buy Francium:
Francium is the most chemically reactive and one of the most unstable of all naturally occurring elements. Its most stable isotope (francium-223) has a half-life of just 22 minutes. The total amount of francium present in the Earth’s crust at any moment is estimated at 20–30 grams, distributed across the entire planet. No scrap trade is conceivable.
Market Value
No commercial market exists. Francium cannot be produced in any macroscopic quantity — any visible amount would violently react with moisture and be consumed by its own decay heat. It is a research curiosity, not a commodity.