14 Facts About Rubidium

Rubidium is the chemical element with the symbol Rb and atomic number 37.

Rubidium is the first alkali metal in the group to have a density higher than water.

Rubidium metal is easily vaporized and has a convenient spectral absorption range, making it a frequent target for laser manipulation of atoms.

Rubidium chloride is probably the most used rubidium compound: among several other chlorides, it is used to induce living cells to take up DNA; it is used as a biomarker, because in nature, it is found only in small quantities in living organisms and when present, replaces potassium.

Rubidium is the twenty-third most abundant element in the Earth's crust, roughly as abundant as zinc and rather more common than copper.

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Rubidium was discovered in 1861 by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, in Heidelberg, Germany, in the mineral lepidolite through flame spectroscopy.

Rubidium was the second element, shortly after caesium, to be discovered by spectroscopy, just one year after the invention of the spectroscope by Bunsen and Kirchhoff.

Rubidium compounds are sometimes used in fireworks to give them a purple color.

Rubidium has been considered for use in a thermoelectric generator using the magnetohydrodynamic principle, whereby hot rubidium ions are passed through a magnetic field.

Rubidium has been used for polarizing He, producing volumes of magnetized He gas, with the nuclear spins aligned rather than random.

Rubidium vapor is optically pumped by a laser, and the polarized Rb polarizes He through the hyperfine interaction.

Rubidium is used as an ingredient in special types of glass, in the production of superoxide by burning in oxygen, in the study of potassium ion channels in biology, and as the vapor in atomic magnetometers.

Rubidium is very similar to potassium, and tissue with high potassium content will accumulate the radioactive rubidium.

Rubidium was tested for the influence on manic depression and depression.