Actinium elements

The members of the d block, with the exception of the elements in Group 12 (the zinc group) are called transition metals. As we shall see, these elements are transitional in character between the vigorously reactive metals in the s block and the less reactive metals on the left of the p block. The members of the f block, which is shown below the main table (to save space), are the inner transition metals. The upper row of this block, following lanthanum (element 57) in Period 6, consists of the lanthanides and the lower row, following actinium (element 89) in Period 7, consists of the actinides. 

Roy, S.C., Extraction studies of trans-actinium elements through microporous membrane, PhD thesis. University of Mumbai, Mumbai, 2007 (submitted). 

The last discovery of an alkali metal occurred almost 80 years later. In 1939, Parisian physicist Marguerite Perey (1909-75) observed an unusual rate of radioactive decay in a sample of a salt of actinium (element 89). She managed to isolate the new element, showed that it was an alkali metal, and named it francium in honor of her native country, France. Because francium s longest-lived isotope has a half-life of only 21 minutes, francium is the rarest element below element 98 in the periodic table, which explains why francium was discovered much later than the other radioactive elements in that part of the table. 

Eliav, E., Shmulyian, S., Kaldor, U., Ishikawa, Y. Transition energies of lanthanum, actinium, and eka-actinium (element 121). J. Chem. Phys. 109, 3954 (1998)... 

Care must be taken in handling radon, as with other radioactive materials. The main hazard is from inhalation of the element and its solid daughters which are collected on dust in the air. Good ventilation should be provided where radium, thorium, or actinium is stored to prevent build-up of the element. Radon build-up is a health consideration in uranium mines. Recently radon build-up in homes has been a concern. Many deaths from lung cancer are caused by radon exposure. In the U.S. it is recommended that remedial action be taken if the air in homes exceeds 4 pCi/1. 

Each of the elements has a number of isotopes (2,4), all radioactive and some of which can be obtained in isotopicaHy pure form. More than 200 in number and mosdy synthetic in origin, they are produced by neutron or charged-particle induced transmutations (2,4). The known radioactive isotopes are distributed among the 15 elements approximately as follows actinium and thorium, 25 each protactinium, 20 uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, californium, einsteinium, and fermium, 15 each herkelium, mendelevium, nobehum, and lawrencium, 10 each. There is frequently a need for values to be assigned for the atomic weights of the actinide elements. Any precise experimental work would require a value for the isotope or isotopic mixture being used, but where there is a purely formal demand for atomic weights, mass numbers that are chosen on the basis of half-life and availabiUty have customarily been used. A Hst of these is provided in Table 1. 

Argon-40 [7440-37-1] is created by the decay of potassium-40. The various isotopes of radon, all having short half-Hves, are formed by the radioactive decay of radium, actinium, and thorium. Krypton and xenon are products of uranium and plutonium fission, and appreciable quantities of both are evolved during the reprocessing of spent fuel elements from nuclear reactors (qv) (see Radioactive tracers). 

The isolation and identification of 4 radioactive elements in minute amounts took place at the turn of the century, and in each case the insight provided by the periodic classification into the predicted chemical properties of these elements proved invaluable. Marie Curie identified polonium in 1898 and, later in the same year working with Pierre Curie, isolated radium. Actinium followed in 1899 (A. Debierne) and the heaviest noble gas, radon, in 1900 (F. E. Dorn). Details will be found in later chapters which also recount the discoveries made in the present century of protactinium (O. Hahn and Lise Meitner, 1917), hafnium (D. Coster and G. von Hevesey, 1923), rhenium (W. Noddack, Ida Tacke and O. Berg, 1925), technetium (C. Perrier and E. Segre, 1937), francium (Marguerite Percy, 1939) and promethium (J. A. Marinsky, L. E. Glendenin and C. D. Coryell, 1945). 

With the exception of actinium, which is found naturally only in traces in uranium ores, these elements are by no means rare though they were once thought to be so Sc 25, Y 31, La 35 ppm of the earth s crustal rocks, (cf. Co 29ppm). This was, no doubt, at least partly because of the considerable difficulty experienced in separating them from other constituent rare earths. As might be expected for class-a metals, in most of their minerals they are associated with oxoanions such as phosphate, silicate and to a lesser extent carbonate. 

The actinides ( actinons or actinoids ) are the fourteen elements from thorium to lawren-cium inclusive, which follow actinium in the periodic table. They are analogous to the lanthanides and result from the filling of the 5f orbitals, as the lanthanides result from the filling of the 4f. The position of actinium, like that of lanthanum, is somewhat equivocal and, although not itself an actinide, it is often included with them for comparative purposes. 

As the parent of actinium in this series it was named protoactinium, shortened in 1949 to protactinium. Because of its low natural abundance its chemistry was obscure until 1960 when A. G. Maddock and co-workers at the UK Atomic Energy Authority worked up about 130g from 60 tons of sludge which had accumulated during the extraction of uranium from UO2 ores. It is from this sample, distributed to numerous laboratories throughout the world, that the bulk of our knowledge of the element s chemistry was gleaned. 

Elements beyond 103 are expected to be 6d elements forming a fourth transition series, and attempts to synthesize them have continued during the past thirty years. All 10 (including, of course, actinium) are now known and are discussed in the section on transactinide elements on p. 1280. The work has required the dedicated commitment of extensive national facilities and has been carried out at the Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratories, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, and the Heavy-Ion Research Centre (GSI) at Darmstadt, Germany. 

Only five of the seventh-row elements are found in nature radium, actinium, thorium, protac-... 

The most interesting elements of the seventh row are those following actinium. For some of these elements a large amount of chemistry is known. The first four, actinium, thorium, protactinium, and uranium, used to be shown in the periodic... 

Yet it is generally accepted today that the elements following actinium involve 5/ energy levels, identifying them as the seventh-row equivalents of the lanthanides. 

Between barium (Group 2, element 56) and lutetium (Group 3, element 71), the 4f orbitals fill with electrons, giving rise to the lanthanides, a set of 14 metals named for lanthanum, the first member of the series. The lanthanides are also called the rare earths, although except for promethium they are not particularly rare. Between radium (Group 2, element 88) and lawrenclum (Group 3, element 103), are the 14 actinides, named for the first member of the set, actinium. The lanthanides and actinides are also known as the inner transition metals. 

The actinoid elements (or actinides An) constitute a series of 14 elements which are formed by the progressive filling of the 5/ electron shell and follow actinium in the periodic table (atomic numbers 90-103). All of the isotopes of the actinide elements are radioactive and only four of the primordial isotopes, Th, and " " Pu, have a sufficient long half-life for there to be any of these left in nature. 

Debieme A (1900) Sur un nouvel element radio-actif I actinium. Comptes Rendus de Seances de I academie de Sciences 130 906-908... 

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