Rubidium

Occurrence, isolation & synthesis


Occurrence


In nature, rubidium is found in the Earth's crust, 34 ppm, in minerals such as rhodizite, lepidolite and rubidium carnalite, and in sea water, mineral springs and salt lakes [6]. The isotopes found in nature are 85Ru (72.15 %, stable) and 87Li (27.85 %, T½ = 4.8 · 1010 years) [6].

In pure solid form, rubidium exist in a body-centered cubic crystal structure [6]