Thorium information

Thorium, ₉₀Th
Thorium
Pronunciation	/ˈθɔːriəm/ (THOR-ee-əm)
Appearance	silvery
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Th)
	232.0377±0.0004; 232.04±0.01 (abridged);
Thorium in the periodic table
	actinium ← thorium → protactinium
Atomic number (Z)	90
Group	f-block groups (no number)
Period	period 7
Block	f-block
Electron configuration	[Rn] 6d2 7s2
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 10, 2
Physical properties
Phase at STP	solid
Melting point	2023 K (1750 °C, 3182 °F)
Boiling point	5061 K (4788 °C, 8650 °F)
Density (at 20° C)	11.725 g/cm3
Heat of fusion	13.81 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporisation	514 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity	26.230 J/(mol·K)
Atomic properties
Oxidation states	−1, +1, +2, +3, +4 (a weakly basic oxide)
Electronegativity	Pauling scale: 1.3
Ionisation energies	1st: 587 kJ/mol ; 2nd: 1110 kJ/mol ; 3rd: 1930 kJ/mol ; ;
Atomic radius	empirical: 179.8 pm
Covalent radius	206±6 pm
	Spectral lines of thorium
Other properties
Natural occurrence	primordial
Crystal structure	face-centred cubic (fcc) (cF4)
Lattice constant	a = 508.45 pm (at 20 °C)
Thermal expansion	11.54×10−6/K (at 20 °C)
Thermal conductivity	54.0 W/(m⋅K)
Electrical resistivity	157 nΩ⋅m (at 0 °C)
Magnetic ordering	paramagnetic
Molar magnetic susceptibility	132.0×10−6 cm3/mol (293 K)
Young's modulus	79 GPa
Shear modulus	31 GPa
Bulk modulus	54 GPa
Speed of sound thin rod	2490 m/s (at 20 °C)
Poisson ratio	0.27
Mohs hardness	3.0
Vickers hardness	295–685 MPa
Brinell hardness	390–1500 MPa
CAS Number	7440-29-1
History
Naming	after Thor, the Norse god of thunder
Discovery	Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1829)
Isotopes of thorium v; e;
	Category: Thorium; view; talk; edit; \| references

Thorium is a chemical element. It has the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is a weakly radioactive light silver metal which tarnishes olive gray when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high melting point. Thorium is an electropositive actinide whose chemistry is dominated by the +4 oxidation state; it is quite reactive and can ignite in air when finely divided.

All known thorium isotopes are unstable. The most stable isotope, ²³²Th, has a half-life of 14.05 billion years, or about the age of the universe; it decays very slowly via alpha decay, starting a decay chain named the thorium series that ends at stable ²⁰⁸Pb. On Earth, thorium and uranium are the only elements with no stable or nearly-stable isotopes that still occur naturally in large quantities as primordial elements.^[a] Thorium is estimated to be over three times as abundant as uranium in the Earth's crust, and is chiefly refined from monazite sands as a by-product of extracting rare-earth metals.

Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Norwegian amateur mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Its first applications were developed in the late 19th century. Thorium's radioactivity was widely acknowledged during the first decades of the 20th century. In the second half of the century, thorium was replaced in many uses due to concerns about its radioactivity.

Thorium is still being used as an alloying element in TIG welding electrodes but is slowly being replaced in the field with different compositions. It was also material in high-end optics and scientific instrumentation, used in some broadcast vacuum tubes, and as the light source in gas mantles, but these uses have become marginal. It has been suggested as a replacement for uranium as nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors, and several thorium reactors have been built. Thorium is also used in strengthening magnesium, coating tungsten wire in electrical equipment, controlling the grain size of tungsten in electric lamps, high-temperature crucibles, and glasses including camera and scientific instrument lenses. Other uses for thorium include heat-resistant ceramics, aircraft engines, and in light bulbs. Ocean science has utilised ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th isotope ratios to understand the ancient ocean.^[9]

^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Thorium". CIAAW. 2013.
^ Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (4 May 2022). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.
^ ^a ^b ^c Arblaster, John W. (2018). Selected Values of the Crystallographic Properties of Elements. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM International. ISBN 978-1-62708-155-9.
^ Th(-I) and U(-I) have been detected in the gas phase as octacarbonyl anions; see Chaoxian, Chi; Sudip, Pan; Jiaye, Jin; Luyan, Meng; Mingbiao, Luo; Lili, Zhao; Mingfei, Zhou; Gernot, Frenking (2019). "Octacarbonyl Ion Complexes of Actinides [An(CO)₈]^+/− (An=Th, U) and the Role of f Orbitals in Metal–Ligand Bonding". Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). 25 (50): 11772–11784. 25 (50): 11772–11784. doi:10.1002/chem.201902625. ISSN 0947-6539. PMC 6772027. PMID 31276242.
^ Lide, D. R., ed. (2005). "Magnetic susceptibility of the elements and inorganic compounds". CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (PDF) (86th ed.). CRC Press. pp. 4–135. ISBN 978-0-8493-0486-6.
^ Weast, R. (1984). CRC, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Chemical Rubber Company Publishing. p. E110. ISBN 978-0-8493-0464-4.
^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
^ Varga, Z.; Nicholl, A.; Mayer, K. (2014). "Determination of the ²²⁹Th half-life". Physical Review C. 89 (6): 064310. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.89.064310.
^ Negre, César et al. “Reversed flow of Atlantic deep water during the Last Glacial Maximum.” Nature, vol. 468,7320 (2010): 84-8. doi:10.1038/nature09508

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[1] "Standard Atomic Weights: Thorium". CIAAW. 2013.

[CIAAW2021-2] Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (4 May 2022). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.

[Arblaster_2018-3] Arblaster, John W. (2018). Selected Values of the Crystallographic Properties of Elements. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM International. ISBN 978-1-62708-155-9.

[Th(-1),_U(-1)-4] Th(-I) and U(-I) have been detected in the gas phase as octacarbonyl anions; see Chaoxian, Chi; Sudip, Pan; Jiaye, Jin; Luyan, Meng; Mingbiao, Luo; Lili, Zhao; Mingfei, Zhou; Gernot, Frenking (2019). "Octacarbonyl Ion Complexes of Actinides [An(CO)₈]^+/− (An=Th, U) and the Role of f Orbitals in Metal–Ligand Bonding". Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). 25 (50): 11772–11784. 25 (50): 11772–11784. doi:10.1002/chem.201902625. ISSN 0947-6539. PMC 6772027. PMID 31276242.

[magnet-5] Lide, D. R., ed. (2005). "Magnetic susceptibility of the elements and inorganic compounds". CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (PDF) (86th ed.). CRC Press. pp. 4–135. ISBN 978-0-8493-0486-6.

[6] Weast, R. (1984). CRC, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Chemical Rubber Company Publishing. p. E110. ISBN 978-0-8493-0464-4.

[NUBASE2020-7] Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.

[Varga14-8] Varga, Z.; Nicholl, A.; Mayer, K. (2014). "Determination of the ²²⁹Th half-life". Physical Review C. 89 (6): 064310. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.89.064310.

[10] Negre, César et al. “Reversed flow of Atlantic deep water during the Last Glacial Maximum.” Nature, vol. 468,7320 (2010): 84-8. doi:10.1038/nature09508

Thorium information

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Occurrence of thorium

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Actinide

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Protactinium

Actinides in the environment

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Breeder reactor

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