Dorky Poll: Explosive Elements

I picked potassium, but only because the sodium/potassium alloys that are liquid at room temperature contain somewhat more potassium than sodium.

I've often thought it would be amusing to fill a squirt gun with the liquid potassium/sodium alloy. Massively unwise, of course, but amusing nevertheless.

I picked Lithium. I'm an atomic spectroscopist (the chemistry kind, not the physics kind) and the instrument I built in grad school could detect much lower concentrations of Lithium than the others. Of course, part of that's just that there's potassium and sodium everywhere, so trying to come up with a true blank is pretty much impossible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2008_season)#Alkali_Metal_May…

Mythbusters did it.

I picked Francium 'cuz it seems like it would make the biggest explosions and I am sad that more people didn't make the same choice.

Tim @#1, would probably be technically difficult to get it in a standard squirt gun, too.

I picked "I object to this poll." Actually, I don't really object to the poll, it's just that my *real* choice was not an option. My actual choice is both Sodium and Potassium (NaK - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaK) because you can mix them together to make an alloy that is liquid at room temperature. As a high school student, I made NaK myself in my home laboratory. I don't know if you can still do this, but in those olden times, you could buy sodium and potassium by mail order, and have them delivered to your house. Good times!

Ununennium (or eka-francium), is the temporary name of a hypothetical chemical element in the periodic table that has the temporary symbol Uue and has the atomic number 119. Since it is below the alkali metals it might have properties similar to those of francium or cesium. Like other alkali metals, it should be extremely reactive with water and air. A predicted oxidation state is 1.

Ununennium would be the first element in the eighth period of the periodic table and the seventh alkali metal.

Next favorite: Z = 169, Uhe, but 169 = 13 x 13, so it might be very unlucky to synthesize.

I voted for potassium because of its role in defending plants from animals.

You might think that being a leaf-eating animal would be a pretty easy life. What's a leaf going to do? Well, it turns out, leaves concentrate potassium in their fluids relative to sodium. If you make a living eating leaves, you have to eat a lot of leaves, and your kidneys are not 100.0000% efficient. Eventually, your electrolytes will get out of balance and you'll start walking crooked and falling down.

Unless you find a source of excess sodium to balance the excess potassium in the leaves. A source of excess dietary sodium is called a "salt lick." This is why leaf-eating animals will go to extraordinary lengths to get salt. Access to dietary salt is what determines how much they can eat, not the availability of food.

Rubidium. Any atom I've fired a laser at deserves a vote.

I voted for Na because of an experiment gone wrong back in middle school, even if it was only a small fire.

But Cs is the coolest one I've ever seen and been my first pick under other circumstances. I wouldn't want to be around any experiment done with Fr.

Lithium. A metal half the density of water? In what world is that not the coolest thing ever?

Potassium makes purple flames when you put it in water. Come on people! Though I didn't know about NaK - I wish they'd showed us THAT at school!

My husband got the superhero moniker "Rubidium Man" in grad school, and I was recently dubbed "Rubidia, goddess of rubidium loading," so I don't really have a choice.

I've dealt with liquid rubidium and disposed of 25 gram samples by following my advisor's advice to "squirt it with water -- we don't have time to stay here all night spraying it with butanol."

All the sodium I've ever worked with, by contrast, has come in pre-sealed vapor cells.

Cesium was the clear winner for me. My research depends heavily on its ternary salts, and it's the central bit of atomic clocks. Plus, the fire danger!

I voted for caesium in the hope that one of the quacks who promotes caesium as a cure for cancer might be inspired to swallow a piece.

Can I recommend this:

http://www.periodicvideos.com/

Cs. The others aren't used in SIMS ion sources.