All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 38, an alkaline earth metal
The element that makes fireworks red, named after a village in the Scottish Highlands.
Period 5, group 2. The other alkaline earth metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Two valence electrons, which strontium gives up to form the Sr²⁺ ion in its compounds.
Mined as celestine (SrSO₄), mostly in Spain, China and Mexico, and as strontianite (SrCO₃).
Adair Crawford and William Cruikshank recognized in 1790 that a mineral from the lead mines at Strontian, Scotland, contained a new earth. Humphry Davy isolated the metal in 1808 by electrolysis.
Red fireworks and emergency flares, glow-in-the-dark paints and toys (strontium aluminate), ferrite magnets in small motors and speakers, and toothpaste for sensitive teeth. It was once added to the glass of television tubes to block X-rays, and strontium clocks are among the most precise clocks ever built.