Palermo, Italy/palermo502
Previous | Home | NextOn the second and third stories of the Palermo building is located the Institute of Mineralogy. Carlo Perrier, who was Chair of Mineralogy of this institute helped Segrè by performing the chemical separations of extracts from the molybdenum plate. The surface layer of the molybdenum plate removed from the cyclotron was removed by treatment with boiling ammonia. The resulting solution was carried through a series of careful chemical separations to yield a microscopic amount of radioactive material which proved to be element 43. The discoverers named the element "technetium" after several years, after it was clear that the discovery was indeed a new element.
