Strontium

Uses

Strontium’s most visible role is in fireworks and signal flares, where its compounds produce the deep, brilliant red color familiar from countless displays. Strontium carbonate was also historically added to the glass in cathode-ray tube televisions and monitors to help block X-rays generated inside the tube from reaching the viewer. Strontium ferrite, a compound of strontium, iron and oxygen, is used to make durable, low-cost ceramic magnets found in everything from refrigerator magnets to small motors and speakers.

Because strontium behaves chemically much like calcium, some strontium compounds have also been studied and used in treatments aimed at supporting bone health, under close medical supervision given the element’s tendency to accumulate in bone tissue.

History

Strontium takes its name from Strontian, a small village in the Scottish Highlands, where an unusual mineral was found in a lead mine in the late 18th century. In 1790, physician and chemist Adair Crawford examined the mineral and concluded it contained a new “earth,” distinct from other known minerals of the time, though he wasn’t able to isolate the metal itself. That step came in 1808, when Humphry Davy used electrolysis — passing an electric current through a molten compound — to isolate pure strontium metal for the first time, adding it to the list of reactive metals he successfully isolated during that period.