Le France Soir
Discovery of New Element- 1813
Founded
Famous discovery of a new element has been made that is now on the Periodic Table. The element, iodine was discovered two years ago by famous french chemist, Bernard Courtois in France. Reporter asked Courtois, "How did you come to discover this element?" where Courtois responded, "In the year 1811, one day, as I was making medicine, I had accidentally added too much sulfuric acid to seaweed ash and obtained a violet vapor that condensed to form dark crystals. I was awestruck at the discovery and after some researching of what inside the substance made the sick heal so well, I later came to know, it was the element, iodine in it." Courtois's famous discovery was announced a few days ago. Iodine has an element symbol, 'I' and has been placed on the fifth row of the seventeenth group on the periodic table, in the Halogens family. It has an atomic number of 53, atomic mass of 126.9, 53 protons and electrons, and a total of 74 neutrons. Scientists have searched for this element in nature, but failed to do so, and conclude that iodine is never found free in nature, as iodine minerals are really rare. However, found that brines and chilean nitrate contain little amounts of iodine, as well as seaweed, all in which the element is later extracted for our use.
Bernard Courtois, French Chemist
Courtois served as a pharmacist in the French Army. He made a famous discovery of iodine in 1811, and this discovery was announced as an element a few days ago of the recent year, 1813.
Iodine- Physical Properties
After lots of examinations and tests conducted for this element, iodine is come to known as a bluish-black color solid non metal, with a very pungent odor, a density of 4.98 g/cm-3, and a melting point of 113.7°C when placed in room temperatures. Iodine is known to have a shiny and glittery luster because of its crystalline structure, it is ductile and malleable, but being a nonmetal, is a poor conductor of heat and electricity.
Iodine Gas
Tests show that iodine evaporates into a beautiful violet color gas at ambient temperatures. This is where the word "Iodine" comes from, the Greek word "Iodes" meaning "Violet".
Iodine- Chemical Properties
Iodine has been tested with many other elements from the periodic table and concluded to be very reactive with most elements, including oxygen, hydrogen, and other halogens, forming compounds like Iodine Chloride (ICl3), Iodine Dioxide (IO2), Iodine Fluoride (1F), Iodine triflouride (IF3), and Diiodine hexafluoride (ICI3)2, and many more yet to be discovered. The element is tested to be a very corrosive poison that can turn an area black when exposed to skin.
Uses and Impacts
Tests were done to see if any of this element is contained in the human body, and is now known to be an important component in the daily diets of humans and many animals, as it appears to be the heaviest required element in our diets. In fact, research has been done to prove that low iodine in body increases the chance of many diseases, including cancer. Though it is very corrosive, different compounds of iodine create extremely healthy and useful things discovered thus far. For example nowadays we are using this element in photography by using a mixture of potassium iodine (KI), and silver iodine (AgI) with other substances, to use for ink in cameras to capture pictures. Aside from iodine being useful for healing wounds and making medicine, research and studies show that such great element also helps to prevent goiter (irritation of the throat area and thyroid), boosting metabolism and breast care (for proper growth and development of children). Iodine is also known to be a great antiseptic to prepare skin before surgeries since it kills bacterias that cause infections, and is even used in X-rays. Doctors have started to use this element to inject patients to see what is happening in the hollow parts (blood vessels, stomach, etc). New research has been done, proving that iodine is great for skin and health care (acne, hair loss) causing competition between many bath products selling companies.