The Wide Use of Strontium

Strontium is a grey, silvery metal. It is softer than calcium and even more reactive in water, with which it reacts on contact to produce strontium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. It can burn in air to produce both strontium oxide and strontium nitride, however,  since it does not react with nitrogen below 380 °C, at room temperature it will only form the oxide spontaneously.

Because of its extreme reactivity with oxygen and water, Strontium occurs naturally only in compounds with other elements, like  the minerals strontianite and celestite. It is kept under a liquid hydrocarbon such as mineral oil or kerosene to prevent oxidation; freshly exposed strontium metal rapidly turns a yellowish color with the formation of the oxide. Finely powdered strontium metal is pyrophoric meaning it will ignite spontaneously in air at room temperature. Volatile strontium salts impart a bright red color to flames, and these salts are used in pyrotechnics and in the production of flares. Natural strontium is a mixture of four stable isotopes.
Strontium metal can be applied in strontium 90%-aluminium 10% alloys of an eutectic composition for the modification of aluminium-silicon casting alloys. AJ62, a durable, creep-resistant magnesium alloy used in car and motorcycle engines by BMW, contains 2% strontium by weight.
What's more, strontium is used in scientific studies of neurotransmitter release in neurons. Like calcium, strontium facilitates synaptic vesicle fusion with the synaptic membrane. But, unlike calcium, strontium causes asynchronous vesicle fusion. Therefore, replacing calcium in a culture medium with strontium allows scientists to measure the effects of a single-vesicle fusion event, e.g., the size of the postsynaptic response elicited by the neurotransmitter content of a single vesicle.

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