Caesium is a chemical element; it has symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of 28.5 °C, which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at or near room temperature. Caesium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of rubidium and potassium. It is pyrophoric and reacts with water even at −116 °C.
source.image: Thoisoi2..
Only francium can be more active than cesium, but that metal is radioactive and only an insignificant Because of its high activity, metallic cesium is being stored in special ampoules under inert atmosphere of either argon or hydrogen.
source.image: Thoisoi2..
Appearance wise, cesium has a yellowish tint, like gold, but the price for cesium is still higher than gold. Due to the extremely small sales market and its highest activity, price of cesium can reach over 100 euros per gram! The vial, which you see on the screen, is 50 grams of cesium. Just imagine it’s cost.
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Cesium is unusual in that it has a very low melting point – only 29 degrees Celsius. If you take the vial of cesium in hand, you can see how quickly the metal begins to melt. Furthermore, even while cesium is still in the vial, we can already conduct experiments with it. If you leave the liquid cesium in a vial for some time, it partially hardens, forming very beautiful crystals of pure cesium.
First, I took a piece of cesium and put it on a piece of wood. Cesium melts from the oxidation reaction of oxygen in the air, and then self-ignites with a beautiful magenta flame due to cesium ions. Cesium also behaves similarly on the napkin.
