7 Radium Uses: Facts You Should Know!

Radium is 6^th element in group 2 of periodic table with atomic number 88 and chemical symbol Ra, known as alkaline earth metals. Let us study the applications of radium (Ra).

The different applications of radium are listed down.

• Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
• Industry

Atomic, molecular, and optical physics

Radium has different applications in the field of atomic, molecular and optical physics. The different applications are as followed:

• Radium is the heaviest alkaline earth element, suited for constraining new physics beyond the standard model.
• Radium-225, have octupole deformed parity doublets that accelerate the sensitivity to charge parity violating new physics.
• The two sub hertz-linewidth transitions present in radium serve as the clock transition in an optical clock.
• Radium is used in transportable optical clock as all transitions are addressed directly with diode lasers.

Industry

Radium has different uses in the industry perspective. The applications of radium are listed down:

• Radium is used as additive in products such as hair creams, toothpaste.
• Radium is used in food items because of its supposed curative powers.
• Radium serves as the radiation source in some industrial radiography devices to check for flawed metallic parts, similarly to X-ray imaging.
• When mixed with beryllium, radium acts as a neutron source.

Conclusion

Radium is the only radioactive element in group 2. Applications of radium lies in the field of its radioactivity nature. It is used in self-luminous paints for watches, instrument dials and aircraft switches. The different applications of radium are mainly in the field of molecular, optics and atomic physics.