Radium chloride radium chloride is weakly paramagnetic with a magnetic susceptibility of 1.05. It also differs from barium chloride by the flame color, which is red as opposed to green for barium chloride. Radium chloride is still used for the initial stages of the separation of radium from barium during the extraction of radium from pitchblende. The large quantities of material involved (tonnes of ore for milligrams of radium) favour this less costly (but less efficient) method over those based on radium bromide or radium chromate (used for the later stages of the separation). It was also used in medicine to produce
Radium bromide Radium bromide Radium bromide is the bromide salt of radium, with the formula RaBr. It is produced during the separation of radium from uranium ore. This inorganic compound was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898, which sparked a huge interest in radiochemistry, especially radiotherapy. Since radium oxidizes rapidly in air and in water, the salt form is the preferred chemical form to work with. Even though the salt form is more stable, radium bromide is still a dangerous chemical that can explode under certain conditions. After the Curies discovered radium, many people tried to get as much radium