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Technetium
General Info
Atomic Symbol	Tc
Atomic Number	43
Atomic Weight	98 g/mol98 amu
Chemical series	Transition Metals
Appearance	silvery grey metal
Group, Period, Block	7, 5, d
Electron configuration	[Kr] 5s2 4d5
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 13, 2
CAS number	7440-26-8
Physical properties
Phase	solid
Density	11 g/ml
Melting point	2474K2,200.85 °C 3,993.53 °F 4,453.2 °R
Boiling point	5150K4,876.85 °C 8,810.33 °F 9,270 °R
Isotopes of Technetium
iso NA half-life DT DE (MeV) DP 95mTc syn 61 d ε - 95Mo 95mTc syn 61 d γ 0.204, 0.582, 0.835 - 95mTc syn 61 d IT 0.0389, e 95Tc 96Tc syn 4.3 d ε - 96Mo 96Tc syn 4.3 d γ 0.778, 0.849, 0.812 - 97Tc syn 2.6x106 y ε - 97Mo 97mTc syn 90 d IT 0.965, e 97Tc 98Tc syn 4.2x106 y β- 0.4 98Ru 98Tc syn 4.2x106 y γ 0.745, 0.654 - 99Tc trace 2.111x105 y β- 0.294 99Ru 99mTc trace 6.01 h IT 0.142, 0.002 99Tc 99mTc trace 6.01 h γ 0.140 -
All properties are for STP unless otherwise stated.

Technetium, element 43, Tc, is a grey silvery metal that looks like platinum. As its name refers, it is the first synthesized element that was discovered in 1937 by Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segre at University of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. Technetium has no stable isotopes, and all isotopes are radioactive. Technetium does not occur naturally but artificially from U-235 fission. Especially Tc-99m is commonly used in many medical tests.

Contents 1 Properties 2 Occurrences 3 Uses 4 Isotopes 5 References

Properties

Technetium metal looks very similar to platinum, which has silver grey color. Usually scientists get it in powder form though. This element is radioactive, and is the first synthesized element. This element is used as a corrosion inhibitor for steel. On the periodic table, technetium is located between manganese (Mn) and rhenium (Re). Therefore its properties are median of manganese and rhenium. Technetium can be dissolved in nitric acid and aqua regia (mixture of highly concentrated nitric acid and hydrochloric acid). Highly concentrated sulfuric acid also can dissolve technetium, but hydrochloric acid cannot dissolve it no matter how rich acid is. Technetium is also one of the two only elements in first 82 elements that have no stable isotopes. (The other one is promethium.) Below 11K, technetium is a great superconductor. It has hexagonal closed-pack crystal structure. [1] [2]

Occurrences

Technetium is the first element that men artificially synthesized. In 1937, this element was actually discovered by Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segre at University of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. Perrier and Segre bombarded molybdenum (Mo, Element 42) with deuterons in the Berkeley cyclotron to make Element 43. As the result, they got Tc-95 and Tc-97. Today, despite its rarity in the nature, quantities of Tc-99 are created from spent nuclear fuel rods. From the fission of one gram of U-235, 27mg of Tc-99 can be produced. Thus, one gram of technetium costed $2800 until 1960 but now it is available at only $60 per gram. [3] [4]

Uses

Technetium is commonly used in nuclear medicine field. Specifically, Tc-99m isotope is required for many medical tests. Klaus Schwochau’s book Technetium gives 31 radiopharmaceuticals. In immune system, technetium is used for binding cancer cells. A few hours after technetium is injected, medical equipment can detect gamma ray released by technetium. High concentration of gamma ray is detected where a tumor is. When Tc-99m makes compound with tin, this compound can find circulatory system disorders. This compound attaches to red blood cell and travel the circulatory system. [5] [6]

Isotopes

There are 22 isotopes of technetium reported mass range from 90 to 111. Regardless of mass, technetium isotopes are all radioactive. No stable isotope is found yet. Most of them have shorter than an hour half-lives, but three of them-Tc-97, Tc-98, Tc-99-have very long half-lives. Lots of technetium isotopes have meta states, meaning having different structure but same contents. [7] [8]

References

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• reference title description (i.e. source, website, author, etc.)
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