Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride
Pierre and Marie Curie’s work on refining radium chloride was a significant milestone in the field of radioactivity, which eventually led to their Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.
Discovery of Radium: Marie Curie, alongside her husband Pierre, discovered radium in 1898 while investigating the radioactive components of the mineral pitchblende. They observed that pitchblende was more radioactive than uranium alone could account for, suggesting the presence of another radioactive element.
Extraction and Refining Process: The process of isolating radium was extremely laborious and required handling tons of pitchblende, from which only minute amounts of radium could be extracted. The Curies used a differential crystallization technique involving the repeated dissolution of barium-radium chloride in water and recrystallization to separate radium from barium. Radium has similar chemical properties to barium, making their separation challenging.
Refinement to Radium Chloride: Through their painstaking efforts, they refined radium to isolate it as radium chloride. They published the theoretical atomic weight of radium in 1902, and by 1910, Marie Curie and her colleague André-Louis Debierne successfully isolated radium in its pure metallic state.
Health Risks and Sacrifices: Both Curies worked under conditions that disregarded the health risks posed by radiation exposure. They experienced physical ailments likely due to their prolonged exposure to high levels of radioactivity, which were not well understood at the time.
Impact and Legacy: The discovery and isolation of radium were pivotal, leading to numerous applications in medicine and industry, particularly in cancer treatment and radiological equipment. Marie Curie’s later establishment of the Radium Institute in Paris became a center for medical research into cancer therapy.
Their work fundamentally changed scientific understanding of radioactive elements and their properties, laying the groundwork for the development of atomic physics and nuclear medicine.