What is astatine?

Astatine is a chemical element with symbol At and atomic number 85. Classified as a halogen, Astatine is a solid at room temperature. B. Cordero, V. Gómez, A.E. Platero-Prats, M. Revés, J. Echeverría, E. Cremades, F. Barragán, S. Alvarez, Dalton Trans. 2008, 21, 2832-2838.

What is the atomic number of astatine?

Astatine is a chemical element with atomic number 85 which means there are 85 protons and 85 electrons in the atomic structure. The chemical symbol for Astatine is At. Astatine is the rarest naturally occurring element on the Earth’s crust. It occurs on Earth as the decay product of various heavier elements.

What is astatine-211 and how dangerous is it?

Astatine-211 is not only an alpha emitter, it has also got a very short half life and the fact that it decays to a stable non-radioactive isotope of lead means that the radiation dose is quite brief. It even has a secondary decay pathway that creates a few x-rays which doctors could use to track exactly where the isotope is in the body.

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What is the half life of astatine?

Astatine is a chemical element with the symbol At and atomic number 85. It is the rarest naturally occurring element in the Earth’s crust, occurring only as the decay product of various heavier elements. All of astatine’s isotopes are short-lived; the most stable is astatine-210, with a half-life of 8.1 hours.

What is the difference between astatine-211 and iodine-131?

The principal medicinal difference between astatine-211 and iodine-131 (a radioactive iodine isotope also used in medicine) is that iodine-131 emits high-energy beta particles, and astatine does not. Beta particles have much greater penetrating power through tissues than do the much heavier alpha particles.