Rubidium Applications

Argon is mostly used in photocell cathodes production; Rubidium may also be used as an additive to neon and argon gas discharge tubes for more intensive luminosity. This element may be used in gettering alloys; Rubidium salts are used as catalysts in organic synthesis.

strontium-87 by emission of electrons during beta-decay; this process yielded 1% of the existing Strontium; this makes possible determining with very high accuracy the age of any rock just by calculating the ⁸⁷Rb/⁸⁷Sr ratio. This method is suitable for most ancient rocks and minerals, e.g. 2100 million year ages of North-American rocks.

⁸²Rb is a form of rubidium chloride using a radioactive isotope of rubidium. It is marketed under the brand name Cardiogen-82 (Bracco Diagnostics) in the use of imaging of the heart by positron-emission tomography.