Radium bromide RaBr2|
Compounds | Reactions | Production
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| Radium Compounds |
| Its compounds colour flames crimson carmine (rich red or crimson colour with a shade of purple) and give a characteristic spectrum. Due to its geologically short half life and intense radioactivity, radium compounds are quite rare, occurring almost exclusively in uranium ores. |
| Radium bromide |
| Radium chloride |
| Radium bromide RaBr2 |
| It is used in separating radium form uranium ore. |
| Radium chloride RaCl2 |
| The first radium compound to be prepared in a pure state and was the basis of Marie Curie's original separation of radium from barium.[1] The first preparation of radium metal was by the electrolysis of a solution of radium chloride using a mercury cathode. |
| Radium chloride is still used for the initial stages of the separation of radium from barium during the extraction of radium from pitchblende. The large quantities of material involved (tonnes of ore for milligrams of radium) favour this less costly (but less efficient) method over those based on radium bromide or radium chromate (used for the later stages of the separation). |