What are the uses for rubidium?

Element Rubidium (Rb), Group 1, Atomic Number 37, s-block, Mass 85.468. Sources, facts, uses, scarcity (SRI), podcasts, alchemical symbols, videos and images. read more

Rubidium-85 is the dominant form, accounting for 72 per cent of the total, while most of the remainder is the radioactive rubidium-87, which has a half-life of 50 billion years. The radioactive isotope decays to form strontium-87. read more

Today, most rubidium is obtained as a byproduct of refining lithium. Rubidium is used in vacuum tubes as a getter, a material that combines with and removes trace gases from vacuum tubes. It is also used in the manufacture of photocells and in special glasses. read more

Uses of rubidium Rubidium is used to make inexpensive rubidium atomic clocks. These atomic clocks are used for a variety of purposes such as in global navigation systems (GPS and GLONASS) and within the telecommunication industry (cell phone base stations and television stations). read more