Thorium anhydride

Synonyms thorium oxide thorium anhydride thoria... 

EINECS 215-225-1 HSDB 6364 Thoria Thorianite Thorium anhydride Thorium dioxide Thorium oxide Thorium oxide (Th02) Thorotrast Thortrast Umbrathor. Used in ceramics, gas mantles, nuclear fuel, medicine and non-silica optical glass. White crystalline powder mp = 3390 d = 10.0 insoluble in H2O carcinogen. 

This is a way to do this procedure without having to use one of those crazy tube furnaces stuffed with thorium oxide or manganous oxide catalyst [21]. The key here is to use an excess of acetic anhydride. Using even more than the amount specified will insure that the reaction proceeds in the right direction and the bad side reaction formation of dibenzylketone will be minimalized (don t ask). 18g piperonylic acid or 13.6g phenylacetic acid, 50mL acetic anhydride and 50mU pyridine are refluxed for 6 hours and the solvent removed by vacuum distillation. The remaining residue is taken up in benzene or ether, washed with 10% NaOH solution (discard the water layer), and vacuum distilled to get 8g P2P (56%). 

Cyclopentanone has been prepared from adipic acid by distilling the calcium salt,1 heating alone 2 or with acetic anhydride,3 or in the presence of various catalysts such as barium hydroxide,4 thorium oxide,5 manganous oxide,5 uranium nitrate,6 ferrous sulfate 6 and others.7... 

Yellow mercuric oxide reacts only slightly with CO near room temperature, but the activity can be increased markedly by the addition of chromic acid anhydride (58). Thorium oxide is an active catalyst at temperatures above 400°C., and its activity can be increased by the addition of 0.96% Ce203 (60). Vanadium pentoxideis also active at high temperatures (61). 

A quinoline-soluble thorium phthalocyanine is formed in the reaction of thorium tetrachloride with phthalonitrile at 260°C 378), but no analytical data were reported. An ill-characterized sulfonated derivative has also been recorded 119). Uianyl phthalocyanine (U02Pc) has been observed as the product of the reaction of bis(dimethylformamide)uranyl acetate with dilithium phthalocyanine 119, 120), and of the reaction of uranyl acetate with phthalic anhydride 187, 233). Recently, however, Bloor et al. 31) reported that uranyl phthalocyanine formed by the reaction of uranyl chloride and phthalonitrile in dimethylformamide at 180°C has different infrared and visible absorption spectra from those originally quoted 187, 233) and they conclude, on the basis of infrared data, that the uranyl phthalocyanine obtained by previous workers was essentially a mixture of a metal-free phthalocyanine and inorganic uranium salts. 

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