Pitchblend

Gr. technetos, artificial) Element 43 was predicted on the basis of the periodic table, and was erroneously reported as having been discovered in 1925, at which time it was named masurium. The element was actually discovered by Perrier and Segre in Italy in 1937. It was found in a sample of molybdenum, which was bombarded by deuterons in the Berkeley cyclotron, and which E. Eawrence sent to these investigators. Technetium was the first element to be produced artificially. Since its discovery, searches for the element in terrestrial material have been made. Finally in 1962, technetium-99 was isolated and identified in African pitchblende (a uranium rich ore) in extremely minute quantities as a spontaneous fission product of uranium-238 by B.T. Kenna and P.K. Kuroda. If it does exist, the concentration must be very small. Technetium has been found in the spectrum of S-, M-, and N-type stars, and its presence in stellar matter is leading to new theories of the production of heavy elements in the stars. 

Poland, native country of Mme. Curie) Polonium, also called Radium F, was the first element discovered by Mme. Curie in 1898 while seeking the cause of radioactivity of pitchblend from Joachimsthal, Bohemia. The electroscope showed it separating with bismuth. 

L. radius, ray) Radium was discovered in 1898 by Mme. Curie in the pitchblende or uraninite of North Bohemia, where it occurs. There is about 1 g of radium in 7 tons of pitchblende. The element was isolated in 1911 by Mme. Curie and Debierne by the electrolysis of a solution of pure radium chloride, employing a mercury cathode on distillation in an atmosphere of hydrogen this amalgam yielded the pure metal. 

Originally, radium was obtained from the rich pitchblende ore found in Joachimsthal, Bohemia. The carnotite sands of Colorado furnish some radium, but richer ores are found in the Republic of Zaire and the Great Lake region of Canada. Radium is present in all uranium minerals, and could be extracted, if desired, from the extensive wastes of uranium processing. Large uranium deposits are located in Ontario, New Mexico, Utah, Australia, and elsewhere. 

Planet Uranus) Yellow-colored glass, containing more than 1% uranium oxide and dating back to 79 A.D., has been found near Naples, Italy. Klaproth recognized an unknown element in pitchblende and attempted to isolate the metal in 1789. 

Uranium, not as rare as once thought, is now considered to be more plentiful than mercury, antimony, silver, or cadmium, and is about as abundant as molybdenum or arsenic. It occurs in numerous minerals such as pitchblende, uraninite, carnotite, autunite, uranophane, and tobernite. It is also found in phosphate rock, lignite, monazite sands, and can be recovered commercially from these sources. 

Vein Deposits. The vein deposits of uranium are those in which uranium minerals fill cavities such as cracks, fissures, pore spaces, breccias, and stockworks. The dimensions of the openings have a wide range, from the narrow pitchblende-fiHed cracks, faults, and fissures in some of the ore bodies in Europe, Canada, and AustraHa to the massive veins of pitchblende at Jachymov, Czech RepubHc (15). 

Uranium [7440-61-17 is a naturally occurring radioactive element with atomic number 92 and atomic mass 238.03. Uranium was discovered in a pitchblende [1317-75-5] specimen ia 1789 by M. H. Klaproth (1) who named the element uranit after the planet Uranus, which had been recendy discovered. For 50 years the material discovered by Klaproth was thought to be metallic uranium. Pnligot showed that the uranit discovered by Klaproth was really uranium dioxide [1344-57-6] UO2, and obtained the tme elemental uranium as a black powder in 1841 by reduction of UCl [10026-10-5] with potassium (2). 

Uranium dioxide [1344-57-6], UO2, is found ki nature as the mineral pitchblende and as a component ki uraninite. The crystalline soHd melts at 2878°C and is paramagnetic with a room temperature magnetic moment of 3.2 )Xg. The density has been found to range from 10.79 to 10.95 g/cm, lower values are... 

Radium, the last element in the group, was isolated in trace amounts as the chloride by P. and M. Curie in 1898 after their historic processing of tonnes of pitchblende. It was named by Mme Curie in allusion to its radioactivity, a word also coined by her (Latin radius, a ray) the element itself was isolated electrolytically via an amalgam by M. Curie and A. Debieme in 1910 and its compounds give a carmine-red flame test. 

In 1789 M. H. Klaproth examined pitchblende, thought at the time to be a mixed oxide ore of zinc, iron and tungsten, and showed that it contained a new element which he named uranium after the recendy discovered planet, Uranus. Then in 1828 J. J. Berzelius obtained an oxide, from a Norwegian ore now known as thorite he named this thoria after the Scandinavian god of war and, by reduction of its tetrachloride with potassium, isolated the metal thorium. The same method was subsequendy used in 1841 by B. Peligot to effect the first preparation of metallic uranium. 

Thorium is widely but rather sparsely distributed and its only commercial sources are monazite sands (see p. 1229) and the mineral conglomerates of Ontario. The former are found in India, South Africa, Brazil, Australia and Malaysia, and in exceptional cases may contain up to 20% Th02 but more usually contain less than 10%. In the Canadian ores the thorium is present as uranothorite, a mixed Th,U silicate, which is accompanied by pitchblende. Even though present as only 0.4% Th02, the recovery of Th, as a co-product of the recovery of uranium, is viable. 

Uranium, too, is widely distributed and, since it probably crystallized late in the formation of igneous rocks, tends to be scattered in the faults of older rocks. Some concentration by leaching and subsequent re-precipitation has produced a large number of oxide minerals of which the most important are pitchblende or uraninite, U3O8, and camotite, K2(U02)2(V04)2.3H20. However, even these are usually dispersed so that typical ores contain only about 0.1% U, and many of the more readily exploited deposits are nearing exhaustion. The principal sources are Canada, Africa and countries of the former USSR. 

Pech, n. pitch asphalt, -art,/, kind or variety of pitch or asphalt, pechartig, a. pitchy, bituminous. Pech-bleude,/. pitchblende, -draht, m. pitched thread, shoemaker s thread, -eisenerz, n. pitchy iron ore (applied to pitticite, triplite, and a compact variety of limonite). pecheln, v.i. smell pitchy extract pitch. — v.t. extract pitch from pitch, coatjwith pitch, pechen, v.t. pitch, coat with pitch. 

Pech-stein, m. pitchstone. -steinkohle,/, pitch coal, -tanne, /. pitch pine, -torf, m. pitch peat, blaek peat, -uran, n. pitchblende. Pegel, n. level water gage, pegmatitisch, a. (Patrog.) pegmatitic. 

Urano-hydroxyd, n. uranous hydroxide, ura-nium(IV) hydroxide, -reihe, /. uranous series, -salz, n. uranous salt, -uranat, n. uranous uranate, uranium(IV,VI) oxide, UaOa. -verbindung, /. uranous compound, Uran-oxyd, n. uranium oxide, specif, uranic oxide, uranium(VI) oxide, UOa. -ozydhydrat, n. uranium hydroxide, -oxydoxydul, n. = Uranoxyduloxyd. -oxydrot, n. uranium oxide red- -oxydul, n. uranous oxide, ura-nium(IV) oxide, UO2. -oxyduloxyd, n. uranoso-uranic oxide, uranium (I V,VT) oxide, UaOa. -oxydulsalz, n. uranous salt, uranium-(IV) salt, -pechblende, /., -pecherz, n. pitchblende, -phosphat, n, uranium phosphate. -rot, n. uranium red. -salz, n. uranium salt. 

Although the Curies noted that one equivalent gram of radium released one hundred calorics of heat per hour, they were uninterested in the practical implications of this, as they were both devoted to pure scientific discovery. During their work with pitchblende in 1898, the Curies discovered two new radioactive elements, which they named polonium (in honor of Marie s homeland) and radium. By 1902 they had isolated a pure radium salt and made the first atomic weight determination. 

Uranium is a metal that is found naturally as a constituent of chemical compounds m minerals such as pitchblende. Uranium ore is mined much like coal Open pits are used to mine shallow deposits, deeper deposits require shaft mining. Commercial ores yield 3 to 5 lb of nranitim compounds per ton of ore. A material called yellow-cake is produced that is... 

In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie isolated two new radioactive elements, which they named radium and polonium. To obtain a few milligrams of these elements, they started with several tons of pitchblende ore and carried out a long series of tedious separations. Their work was done in a poorly equipped, unheated shed where the temperature reached 6°C (43°F) in winter. Four years later, in 1902, Marie determined the atomic mass of radium to within 0.5%, working with a tiny sample. 

Radium is radioactive and extremely rare. It occurs in trace amounts (one part in 1012) in uranium ores such as pitchblende (mainly U308). 

For example, consider the chemical composition of a very old crystal of pitchblende, U308. We may presume that this crystal was formed at a time when chemical conditions for its formation were favorable. For example, it may have precipitated from molten rock during cooling. The resulting crystals tend to exclude impurities. Yet, careful analysis shows that every deposit of pitchblende contains a small amount of lead. This lead has accumulated in the crystal, beginning at the moment the pure crystal was formed, due to the radioactive decay of the uranium. 

Photosynthesis, 254, 430 Pig iron, 404 Pitchblende, 385, 442 Planck s constant, 254 Planets... 

Uranium is the fuel of nuclear reactors. The most important of its minerals is pitchblende, U02 (Fig. 17.28), much of which is obtained from strip mines in New Mexico and Wyoming. Uranium is refined to reduce the ore to the metal and to enrich it that is, to increase the abundance of a specific isotope—in this case, uranium-235. The natural abundance of uranium-235 is about 0.7% for use in a nuclear reactor, this fraction must be increased to about 3%. 

One curious observation, however, was that pure U actually had a lower radioactivity than natural U compounds. To investigate this. Curie synthesized one of these compounds from pure reagents and found that the synthetic compound had a lower radioactivity than the identical natural example. This led her to believe that there was an impurity in the natural compound which was more radioactive than U (Curie 1898). Since she had already tested all the other elements, this impurity seemed to be a new element. In fact, it turned out to be two new elements—polonium and radium— which the Curies were successfully able to isolate from pitchblende (Curie and Curie 1898 Curie et al. 1898). For radium, the presence of a new element was confirmed by the observation of new spectral lines not attributable to any other element. This caused a considerable stir and the curious new elements, together with their discoverers, achieved rapid public fame. The Curies were duly awarded the 1903 Nobel prize in Physics for studies into radiation phenomena, along with Becquerel for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity. Marie Curie would, in 1911, also be awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry for her part in the discovery of Ra and Po. 

Were all of these newly discovered substances also new elements This question would not be answered for some years but there was a flurry of other major discoveries to keep the protagonists occupied. Pierre Curie discovered that radioactivity released large quantities of heat (Curie and Laborde 1903) which appeared mysterious—as if the heat was coming from nowhere. This discovery provided an extra heat source for the Earth and reconciled the estimates of a very old Earth, based on geological estimates, with the young age calculated by Lord Kelvin from cooling rates. The year 1903 also witnessed the first demonstration that a-decay released He (Ramsay and Soddy 1903). The build up of He was soon put to use to date geological materials, initially by Rutherford in 1905 who calculated the first ever radiometric age of 500 Myr for a pitchblende sample, and then by Strutt who examined a wide variety of minerals (Strutt... 

Bound in minerals such as uraninite, pitchblende, coffinite, etc. fixed as a replacement ion for Y, Ce, Zr, Th, Ca, and Ba in other, particularly accessory minerals and adsorbed as ion on clay minerals, hydrous iron oxides, etc. 

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