In 1896, Becquerel discovered the radioactive phenomenon of uranium salts, which aroused great interest in the young couple. Marie Curie was determined to study the essence of this unusual phenomenon. She first tested all the chemical elements known at the time and discovered that thorium and thorium compounds were also radioactive.
She further tested the radioactivity of various complex minerals and unexpectedly found that pitchblende was more than four times more radioactive than pure uranium oxide. She concluded that uranium ore apparently contained a more radioactive element in addition to uranium.
Based on his experience as a physicist, Curie immediately realized the importance of this research result. He put aside the crystal research he was doing and devoted himself to the search for new elements with Madame Curie. . Soon they determined that uranium ore contained not one but two undiscovered elements.
In July 1898, they first named one of the elements polonium to commemorate Marie Curie’s native Poland. Not long after, in December 1898, they named another element radium. In order to obtain pure polonium and radium, they performed hard work. Working day and night in a broken shed for three years and nine months.
I used an iron rod to stir the boiling pitch uranium slag in the pot, and my eyes and throat endured the irritation of the smoke coming out of the pot. After refining again and again, I made several tons of pitch uranium slag. One-tenth of a gram of radium was obtained. Extended information
In 1903, the Curies and Becquerel won the Nobel Prize in Physics together for their research on radioactivity. In 1911, they won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry again for the discovery of the elements polonium and radium. Award, thus becoming the first person in the world to win two Nobel Prizes.
Marie Curie’s achievements include pioneering the theory of radioactivity, inventing technology for separating radioactive isotopes, and discovering two new elements, polonium and radium. Under her guidance, radioactive isotopes were used for the first time to treat cancer. Due to long-term exposure to radioactive substances, Marie Curie died of malignant leukemia on July 3, 1934.
In her experimental research, Madame Curie designed a measuring instrument that can not only detect the presence of rays in a certain substance, but also measure the intensity of the rays. After repeated experiments, she found that the intensity of uranium rays is proportional to the amount of uranium in the material, and has nothing to do with the state of uranium existence and external conditions.
Madame Curie conducted a comprehensive examination of known chemical elements and all compounds, and made an important discovery: an element called thorium can also automatically emit invisible rays. It shows that the phenomenon that elements can emit rays is not just a characteristic of uranium, but a unique characteristic of some elements.
She called this phenomenon radioactivity, and the elements with this property called radioactive elements. The rays they emit are called "radiation."
Baidu Encyclopedia-Marie Curie