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Chemical Formula: Fr
Present as:
Francium is a chemical element with symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It used to be known as eka-caesium and actinium K. It is the second-least electronegative element, behind only caesium. Francium is a highly radioactive metal that decays into astatine, radium, and radon. As an alkali metal, it has one valence electron.
Bulk francium has never been viewed. Because of the general appearance of the other elements in its periodic table column, it is assumed that francium would appear as a highly reflective metal, if enough could be collected together to be viewed as a bulk solid or liquid. Obtaining such a sample is highly improbable, since the extreme heat of decay (the half-life of its longest-lived isotope is only 22 minutes) would immediately vaporize any viewable quantity of the element.
Francium is the second rarest naturally occurring element and was the last element first discovered in nature, rather than by synthesis. Its chemical and physical properties have not been studied.