 Discovery Information
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| Who: A. Crawford |
| When: 1790 |
| Where: Scotland |
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| Name Origin
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| From Strontian a small Scottish town. |
| "Strontium" in different languages. |
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| Sources
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| Found in minerals celestite (SrSO4) and strontianite (SrCO3). Primary producers are China, the UK, Tunisia, Russia, Germany, Mexico and the USA. Around 137 thousand tons are produced annually.
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| Abundance
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| Universe: 0.04 ppm (by weight) |
| Sun: 0.05 ppm (by weight) |
| Carbonaceous meteorite: 8.9 ppm |
| Earth's Crust: 360 ppm |
| Seawater: |
| Atlantic surface: 7.6 ppm |
| Atlantic deep: 7.7 ppm |
| Pacific surface: 7.6 ppm |
| Pacific deep: 7.7 ppm |
| Human: |
| 4600 ppb by weight |
| 330 ppb by atoms |
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| Uses
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| Used in flares and fireworks for its crimson colour. It's primary use is glass for colour television cathode ray tubes, but
it is also used in nuclear batteries in buoys, some sensitive teeth toothpastes (as SrCl2), magnets, zinc refining and phosphorescent paint.
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| Strontium titanate (SrTiO3) has an extremely high refractive index and an optical dispersion greater than that of diamond, making it useful in a variety of optics applications.
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| History
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| The mineral strontianite (SrCO3) is named after the Scottish village of Strontian having been discovered in the lead mines there in 1787. Adair Crawford recognized it as differing from other barium minerals in 1790. Strontium itself was discovered in 1798 by Thomas Charles Hope, and metallic strontium was first isolated
by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808 using electrolysis.
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| Notes
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| Strontium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1808.
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| Hazards
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| In its pure form strontium is extremely reactive with air and spontaneously combusts, it is therefore considered to be a fire hazard.
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