83. Bismuth

Name: Bismuth
Symbol: Bi
Atomic Number: 83
Atomic Mass: 208.98038 amu
Melting Point: 271.3 °C (544.45 °K, 520.33997 °F)
Boiling Point: 1560.0 °C (1833.15 °K, 2840.0 °F)
Number of Protons/Electrons: 83
Number of Neutrons: 126
Classification: Other Metals
Crystal Structure: Rhombohedral
Density(293 K): 9.8 g/cm3
Color: white

Bismuth is a white, crystalline, brittle metal with a pinkish tinge. Bismuth is the most diamagnetic of all metals, and the thermal conductivity is lower than any metal, except mercury. It has a high electrical resistance, and has the highest Hall effect of any metal (that is, the greatest increase in electrical resistance when placed in a magnetic field).

Bismuth has long been thought to be unstable on theoretical grounds, but not until 2003 was this demonstrated when researchers at the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay, France measured the alpha emission half-life of Bi-209 to be (1.9 ± 0.2) x 1019 years, meaning that bismuth is not truly stable, though in effect it is. Due to this phenomenal half-life, the use of bismuth in (eg) certain medicines poses no radiological hazard. Any food containing the normal amount of carbon 14 is many thousands of times more radioactive than bismuth. However, the radioactivity was of academic interest because bismuth is one of few elements whose radioactivity was suspected, and indeed theoretically predicted, rather than detected in the lab.

Bismuth (New Latin bisemutum from German Wismuth, perhaps from weisse Masse, "white mass") was confused in early times with tin and lead due to its resemblance to those elements. Claude Geoffroy Junine showed in 1753 that this metal is distinct from lead.

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Non-metals H, C, N, O, P, S, Se
Halogens F, Cl, Br, I, At
Alkali metals Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Fr
Alkaline Earth Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra
Transition metals Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg, Rf, Db, Sg, Bh, Hs, Mt, Ds, Rg, Uub
Metalloids B, Si, Ge, As, Sb, Te, Po
Other metals Al, Ga, In, Sn, Tl, Pb, Bi
Rare Earth Lu, Lr, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Ac, Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk, Cf, Es, Fm, Md, No
Noble gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn

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