Thorium

90 actinium ← thorium → protactinium Ce ↑ Th ↓ (Uqn) periodic table
General
Name, Symbol, Number	thorium, Th, 90
Chemical series	Actinides
Group, Period, Block	n/a, 7, f
Appearance	silvery white
Atomic mass	232.03806(2) g/mol
Electron configuration	[Rn] 6d2 7s2
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 10, 2
Physical properties
Phase	solid
Density (near r.t.)	11.7 g/cm³
Melting point	2115 K (1842 °C, 3348 °F)
Boiling point	5061 K (4788 °C, 8650 °F)
Heat of fusion	13.81 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization	514 kJ/mol
Heat capacity	(25 °C) 26.230 J/(mol·K)
Vapor pressure P/Pa 1 10 100 1 k 10 k 100 k at T/K 2633 2907 3248 3683 4259 5055
Atomic properties
Crystal structure	cubic face centered
Oxidation states	4 (weakly basic oxide)
Electronegativity	1.3 (Pauling scale)
Ionization energies (more)	1st: 587 kJ/mol
	2nd: 1110 kJ/mol
	3rd: 1930 kJ/mol
Atomic radius	180 pm
Miscellaneous
Magnetic ordering	no data
Electrical resistivity	(0 °C) 147 nΩ·m
Thermal conductivity	(300 K) 54.0 W/(m·K)
Thermal expansion	(25 °C) 11.0 µm/(m·K)
Speed of sound (thin rod)	(20 °C) 2490 m/s
Speed of sound (thin rod)	(r.t.) 79 m/s
Shear modulus	31 GPa
Bulk modulus	54 GPa
Poisson ratio	0.27
Mohs hardness	3.0
Vickers hardness	350 MPa
Brinell hardness	400 MPa
CAS registry number	7440-29-1
Notable isotopes
Main article: Isotopes of thorium iso NA half-life DM DE (MeV) DP 228Th syn 1.9116 years α 5.520 224Ra 229Th syn 7340 years α 5.168 225Ra 230Th syn 75380 years α 4.770 226Ra 231Th trace 25.5 hours β 0.39 231Pa 232Th 100% 1.405×1010 years α 4.083 228Ra 234Th trace 24.1 days β 0.27 234Pa

Thorium (chemical symbol Th, atomic number 90) is a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive metal and is a member of the actinide series. It can be used in magnesium alloys to impart strength, heat-resistant ceramics, gas tungsten arc welding electrodes, and in coating tungsten wire for electronic equipment. It is a fertile material for producing nuclear fuel, and is under consideration as an alternative nuclear fuel, in place of uranium. In addition, thorium dioxide may be used as a catalyst for various chemical reactions, in mantles for portable gas lights, and in high-quality glass lenses for cameras and scientific instruments.

Occurrence

Monazite, a rare-earth-and-thorium-phosphate mineral, is the primary source of the world's thorium.

Thorium is found in small amounts in most rocks and soils, where it is about three times more abundant than uranium, and is about as common as lead. Soil commonly contains an average of around 12 parts per million (ppm) of thorium. Thorium occurs in several minerals, the most common being the rare earth-thorium-phosphate mineral, monazite, which contains up to about 12 percent thorium oxide. There are substantial deposits in several countries. ²³²Th decays very slowly (its half-life is about three times the age of the earth) but other thorium isotopes occur in the thorium and uranium decay chains. Most of these are short-lived and hence much more radioactive than ²³²Th, though on a mass basis they are negligible. India is believed to have 25 percent of the world's thorium reserves.

Current estimates (in tons) of thorium mineral reserves are as follows.

• 380,000 Turkey
• 300,000 Australia
• 290,000 India
• 170,000 Norway
• 160,000 United States
• 100,000 Canada
• 35,000 South Africa
• 16,000 Brazil
• 95,000 Others

History

Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. The metal had virtually no uses until the invention of the lantern mantle in 1885.

The crystal bar process to produce high-purity metallic thorium (or Iodide process) was discovered by Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer in 1925.

The name ionium was given early in the study of radioactive elements to the ²³⁰Th isotope produced in the decay chain of ²³⁸U before it was realized that ionium and thorium were chemically identical. The symbol Io was used for this supposed element.

Notable characteristics

Thorium is an inner transition metal in the actinide series. It follows actinium in period seven of the periodic table.

When pure, thorium is a silvery white metal that retains its luster for several months. However, when it is contaminated with the oxide, thorium slowly tarnishes in air, becoming gray and eventually black. Thorium dioxide (ThO₂), also called thoria, has one of the highest melting points of all oxides (3300°C). When heated in air, thorium metal turnings ignite and burn brilliantly with a white light.

Isotopes

Naturally occurring thorium is composed of one radioactive isotope: ²³²Th, which has a half-life of 14.05 billion years. Many other radioisotopes have been characterized, including ²³⁰Th, with a half-life of 75,380 years; ²²⁹Th, with a half-life of 7,340 years; and ²²⁸Th, with a half-life of 1.92 years. All the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 30 days, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than ten minutes. This element also has one meta state.

The known isotopes of thorium range in atomic weight from 209 amu (²⁰⁹Th) to 238 amu (²³⁸Th).

Applications

• Thorium is used as an alloying element in magnesium alloys, imparting high strength and creep resistance at elevated temperatures.
• It is used to coat tungsten wire for electronic equipment, improving the electron emission of heated cathodes.
• It has been used in gas tungsten arc welding electrodes and heat-resistant ceramics.
• Uranium-thorium age dating has been used to date hominid fossils.
• It is a fertile material for producing nuclear fuel. In particular, the proposed energy amplifier reactor design would employ thorium. Since thorium is more abundant than uranium, some designs of nuclear reactor incorporate thorium in their nuclear fuel cycle.
• Thorium is a very effective radiation shield, although it has not been used for this purpose as much as have lead or depleted uranium.
• Thorium may be used in subcritical reactors instead of uranium as fuel. This produces less waste and cannot melt down.

Applications of thorium dioxide (ThO₂)

• It has been used for mantles in portable gas lights. These mantles glow with a dazzling light (unrelated to radioactivity) when heated in a gas flame.
• Used to control the grain size of tungsten used for electric lamps.
• Used for high-temperature laboratory crucibles.
• Added to glass, it helps create glasses of a high refractive index and with low dispersion. Consequently, they find application in high-quality lenses for cameras and scientific instruments.
• It has been used as a catalyst:
  • In the conversion of ammonia to nitric acid.
  • In petroleum cracking.
  • In producing sulfuric acid.
• Thorium dioxide was the active ingredient of Thorotrast, which was used as part of X-ray diagnostics. This use has been abandoned due to the carcinogenic nature of Thorotrast.

Thorium as a nuclear fuel

Thorium, as well as uranium and plutonium, can be used as fuel in a nuclear reactor. Although not fissile itself, ²³²Th will absorb slow neutrons to produce uranium-233 (²³³U), which is fissile. Hence, like ²³⁸U, it is fertile.

In one significant respect, ²³³U is better than the other two fissile isotopes used for nuclear fuel, ²³⁵U and plutonium-239 (²³⁹Pu), because of its higher neutron yield per neutron absorbed. Given a start with some other fissile material (²³⁵U or ²³⁹Pu), a breeding cycle similar to, but more efficient than that currently possible with the ²³⁸U-to-²³⁹Pu cycle (in slow-neutron reactors), can be set up. The ²³²Th absorbs a neutron to become ²³³Th which normally decays to protactinium-233 (²³³Pa) and then ²³³U. The irradiated fuel can then be unloaded from the reactor, the ²³³U separated from the thorium (a relatively simple process since it involves chemical instead of isotopic separation), and fed back into another reactor as part of a closed nuclear fuel cycle.

There are, however, several problems with the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel. They include:

• the high cost of fuel fabrication, due partly to the high radioactivity of ²³³U, which is a result of its contamination with traces of the short-lived ²³²U;
• similar difficulties in recycling thorium, due to highly radioactive ²²⁸Th;
• some weapons proliferation risk of ²³³U.

Thus, much development work is required before the thorium fuel cycle can be commercialized.

Nevertheless, the thorium fuel cycle, with its potential for breeding fuel without the need for fast neutron reactors, holds considerable potential for the long term. Thorium is significantly more abundant than uranium, so it is a key factor in the sustainability of nuclear energy.

India, which has about 25 percent of the world's total reserves, has planned its nuclear power program to eventually use thorium exclusively, phasing out uranium as an input material. This ambitious plan uses both fast and thermal breeder reactors. The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor and KAMINI reactor are efforts in this direction.

Precautions

Powdered thorium metal is often pyrophoric and should be handled with care. Moreover, exposure to aerosolized thorium can lead to increased risk of cancers of the lung, pancreas, and blood. Exposure to thorium internally leads to increased risk of liver diseases. This element has no known biological role.

See also

• Chemical element
• Inner transition metal
• Periodic table
• Radioactive decay

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Chang, Raymond. 2006. Chemistry, ninth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math. ISBN 0073221031
• Cotton, F. Albert and Geoffrey Wilkinson. 1980. Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, 4th ed. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-02775-8
• Greenwood, N.N. and A. Earnshaw. 1998. Chemistry of the Elements, 2nd Edition. Oxford, U.K.; Burlington, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier Science. ISBN 0750633654
• Thorium WebElements.com. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
• Thorium Los Alamos National Laboratory. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
• The Uranium Information Centre provided some of the original material in this article. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
• van Arkel, A.E., and de Boer, J.H. 1925. Preparation of pure titanium, zirconium, hafnium, and thorium metal: Zeitschrift für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie, v. 148, p. 345-350.

External links

All links retrieved April 30, 2023.

• Thorium USGS data.

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