I have sometimes noticed the formation of a deposit composed of crystals
of which one part remained uncoloured, whilst the other was coloured,
and it seems possible that the colourless crystals might be sorted out.
The fractional precipitation of an aqueous solution of barium chloride
by alcohol also leads to the isolation of radium chloride, which is the
first to precipitate. This method, which I first employed, was finally
abandoned for the one just described, which proceeds with more
regularity. I have, however, occasionally made use of precipitation by
alcohol to purify radium chloride which contains traces of barium
chloride. The latter remains in the slightly aqueous alcoholic solution,
and can thus be removed.
M. Giesel, who, since the publication of our first researches, has been
preparing radio-active bodies, recommends the separation of barium and
radium by fractional crystallisation in water from a mixture of the
bromides. I can testify that this method is advantageous, especially in
the first stages of the fractionation.
_Determination of the Atomic Weight of Radium._
In the course of my work I determined at intervals the atomic weight of
the metal contained in specimens of barium chloride containing radium.
With each newly obtained product I carried the concentration as far as
possible, so as to have from 0·1 grm. to 0·5 grm. of material containing
most of the activity of the mixture. From this small quantity I
precipitated with alcohol or with hydrochloric acid some milligrams of
chloride for spectral analysis. Thanks to his excellent method, Demarçay
only required this small quantity of material to obtain the photograph
of the spark spectrum. I made an atomic weight determination with the
product remaining.
I employed the classic method of weighing as silver chloride the
chlorine contained in a known weight of the anhydrous chloride. As
control experiment, I determined the atomic weight of barium by the same
method, under the same conditions, and with the same quantity of
material, first 0·5 grm. and then 0·1 grm. The figures obtained were
always between 137 and 138. I thus saw that the method gives
satisfactory results, even with a very small quantity of material.
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