Uranium is an element that was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German chemist. Klaproth discovered the element in the mineral pitchblende, which at the time was thought to be a zinc and iron ore. The mineral was dissolved in nitric acid, and then potassium salt was added to the remaining yellow precipitate. Klaproth concluded that he had discovered a new element when the reaction between the salts and precipitate didn't follow any reactions of known elements. He claimed it to be a new element, but his discovery turned out to be uranium oxide and not pure uranium as he had originally believed it was pure. It took a while after to discover that uranium was radioactive. Uranium was found to be radioactive in 1896 by Antoine H. Becquerel, a French physicist. Becquerel had left a sample of uranium on top of an …show more content…
Uranium is named after the planet Uranus because when it was discovered that was most recent planet discovered. Uranium nucleus is unstable and that’s why it’s radioactive. Uranium is in a constant state of decay, seeking a more stable state. In fact, uranium was the element that made the discovery of radioactivity possible. In 1897, French physicist Henri Becquerel left some uranium salts on a photographic plate as part of some research on how light influenced these salts. To his surprise, the plate fogged up, indicating some sort of emissions from the uranium salts. This started the research of