Tecnecio: el metal que todos buscaban

Technetium (Tc) is a metallic element with atomic number 43, which occupies the group 7 and period 5 in the periodic table. It was not properly identified until 1937, when Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè characterized it as a product of nuclear reactions in the recently invented cyclotron. Its chemistry is rich and versatile due to the large number of existing compounds and complexes, especially with oxidation state +7. Its main application is in medical imaging, such as tomography and scintigraphy. For this purpose, the isotope 99mTc is widely used. It is also employed in the manufacture of alloys and as a catalyst. Despite being considered a synthetic element, it can be found in nature but only in trace amounts.