Period 7 element elements of the 7th period. Francium is a chemical element with symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It was formerly known as eka-caesium and actinium K. It is one of the two least electronegative elements, the other being caesium. Francium is a highly radioactive metal that decays into astatine, radium, and radon. As an alkali metal, it has one valence electron. Francium was discovered by Marguerite Perey in France (from which the element takes its name) in 1939. It was the last element discovered in nature, rather than by synthesis. Outside the laboratory, francium is extremely rare, with trace amounts
Technetium evidence that elements are formed by neutron capture in the s-process. Since that discovery, there have been many searches in terrestrial materials for natural sources of technetium. In 1962, technetium-99 was isolated and identified in pitchblende from the Belgian Congo in extremely small quantities (about 0.2 ng/kg); there it originates as a spontaneous fission product of uranium-238. The Oklo natural nuclear fission reactor contains evidence that significant amounts of technetium-99 were produced and have since decayed into ruthenium-99. Technetium is a silvery-gray radioactive metal with an appearance similar to platinum, commonly obtained as a gray powder. The crystal structure of