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Strontium is an element that sounds scary, probably because of its association with nuclear fallout. But like cobalt and cesium, its name is unfairly tarnished by a few bad isotopes: Ordinary strontium is not radioactive, nor is it especially toxic. It's used in glow in the dark paint.
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Glow in the dark powder.
This is strontium aluminate activated with europium. It's a very good glow-in-the-dark material, of the type you expose to light to charge up. It definitely works very nicely in that capacity, and can be charged in just a few minutes under fluorescent light. I got a sample of three different colors on eBay: The seller offers larger quantities and different formulations besides what he sells on eBay.
Not to be confused with our tritium glowing samples, which use the radioactive decay of tritium to glow for 10 or 20 years without any external input whatsoever.
Source: eBay seller teddp
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 5 September, 2002
Price: $12
Size: 1"
Purity: 53%
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Strontium chloride from old chemistry set.
This bottle is from a 1950's chemistry set I got on eBay after consulting this trusty reference book about radioactive collectables. It's an "ATOMIC ENERGY" set (that kind of thing was big in the '50s), but it also includes an assortment of standard-issue chemistry set chemicals. I'm listing the strontium bottle mainly because I don't have any other good samples of strontium yet.
According to the book's table of going rates for these things, I got a good deal on the chemistry set, though it is not in perfect condition and is missing some components. Modern chemistry sets are pretty wimpy, but I have to say that, aside from the uranium ore and the radium, this set is pretty tame as well. It even proudly claims to contain "no dangerous or explosive chemicals". I mean really, where's the fun in that? Here's a picture of the set:
Source: eBay seller 6tomcat
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 10 January, 2003
Price: $58/chemistry set
Size: 1"
Purity: 55%
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Real strontium.
Strontium metal is hard to get. In fact, it was in the very last group of elements I was able to acquire to complete my collection. It was donated by the extremely kind Max Whitby of the The Red Green & Blue Company, which sells a complete collection of elements.
They sell a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table.
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.
For most sample from this set I have my own picture on the left and the one from the company here, but I haven't taken a picture of this sample yet so there's only one picture.
Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Acquired: 20 January, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.5"
Purity: 99%
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Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%
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