History of chemistry element among the fractions that resulted. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native country of Poland. On December 21, 1898, the Curies detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende. They presented this finding to the French Academy of Sciences on December 26, proposing that the new element be called radium. The Curies then went to work isolating polonium and radium from naturally occurring compounds to prove that they were new elements. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram
Polonium trioxide radioactive. Similar work with curium shows that it is easier to achieve higher oxidation states with longer-lived isotopes; thus, it may be easier to obtain Po(VI) (especially polonium trioxide) using the longer-lived polonium-208 or polonium-209. It has been suggested that Po(VI) might be more stabilized in anions such as or , like other high oxidation states. Polonium trioxide Polonium trioxide (also known as polonium(VI) oxide) is a chemical compound with the formula PoO. It is one of three oxides of polonium, the other two being polonium monoxide (PoO) and polonium dioxide (PoO). It is an interchalcogen. It has so far