Actinium (symbol: Ac) is a chemical element, one of the transition metals and also an actinoid. All isotopes of actinium are unstable, with half-lives of less than 22 years:[8] however, actinium-227 (t½ = 21.772(3) a) is formed as a decay product of uranium-235 (t½ = 704(1) × 106 a) and so small amounts of actinium are present in all samples of natural uranium.
Discovery
The story of the discovery of actinium has generated a certain amount of controversy.[1][9][10] Credit is usually given to French chemist André-Louis Debierne, who described a new source of radiation from pitchblende in 1899,[11] with further details in 1900.[12] He named the new element actinium,[12] from the Greek ἀκτίς, aktis (genitive: ἀκτίνος, aktinos) meaning "ray". However, Debierne's descriptions of his concentrates are not entirely consistent with what is now known about is now known about the chemistry of actinium;[9][10] nor, it should be said, are they entirely consistent among themselves.
The German chemist Friedrich Giesel was also studying the composition of pitchblende, and described a new source of radiation in 1902,[13] with further details in 1903.[14] Giesel called his new element emanium, from "emanation".[15] Crucially for his claim to discovery, at least as viewed with hindsight, Giesel noted that the chemistry of emanium was very similar to that of lanthanum and cerium.
Notes and references
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Many of the properties of actinium are only known through estimation and/or extrapolation. Several estimates of the melting point and thermodynamic properties have been made; the boiling point was estimated on the basis of vapour pressure measurements; the electronegativity was estimated on the basis of periodic trends. The density and ionic radii were determined by X-ray crystallography.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 .
- ↑ Pauling, Linus The Nature of the Chemical Bond, 3rd ed.; Ithaca, NY, 1960. ISBN 0-8014-0333-2.
- ↑ Sugar, Jack Ionization energies of the neutral actinides. J. Chem. Phys. 1973, 59, 788–91. DOI: 10.1063/1.1680091. Sugar, Jack Revised ionization energies of the neutral actinides. J. Chem. Phys. 1974, 60, 4103. DOI: 10.1063/1.1680874.
- ↑ Moore, Charlotte E. Ionization potentials and ionization limits derived from the analyses of optical spectra. Natl. Stand. Ref. Data Ser., (U.S. Natl. Bur. Stand.) 1970, 34, 1–22, <http://www.nist.gov/data/nsrds/NSRDS-NBS34.pdf>.
- ↑ Cordero, Beatriz; Gómez, Verónica; Platero-Prats, Ana E.; Revés, Marc; Echeverría, Jorge; Cremades, Eduard; Barragán, Flavia; Alvarez, Santiago Covalent radii revisited. Dalton Trans. 2008 (5), 2832–38. DOI: 10.1039/b801115j.
- ↑ Shannon, R. D. Revised effective ionic radii and systematic studies of interatomic distances in halids and chalcogenides. Acta Crystallogr. A 1976, 32 (5), 751–67. DOI: 10.1107/S0567739476001551.
- ↑ Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, A. Chemistry of the Elements; Pergamon: Oxford, 1984; pp 1102–10. ISBN 0-08-022057-6.
- ↑ Audi, G.; Bersillon, O.; Blachot, J.; Wapstra, A. H. The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties. Nucl. Phys. A 2003, 729, 3–128. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001, <http://amdc.in2p3.fr/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf>.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kirby, H. W. The Discovery of Actinium. Isis 1971, 62 (3), 290–308. DOI: 10.1086/350760.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Adloff, J. P. The centenary of a controversial discovery: actinium. Radiochim. Acta 2000, 88, 123–28. DOI: 10.1524/ract.2000.88.3-4.123.
- ↑ Debierne, A. Sur un nouvelle matière radio-active. C. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. 1899, 129, 593–95, <http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3085b/f593.table>.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Debierne, A. Sur un nouvelle matière radio-actif – l'actinium. C. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. 1900, 130, 906–8, <http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3086n/f906.table>.
- ↑ Giesel, F. Ueber Radium und radioactive Stoffe. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1902, 35, 3608–11. DOI: 10.1002/cber.190203503187.
- ↑ Giesel, F. Ueber den Emanationskörper aus Pechblende und über Radium. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1903, 36 (1), 342–47. DOI: 10.1002/cber.19030360177.
- ↑ Giesel, F. Ueber den Emanationskörper (Emanium). Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1904, 37 (2), 1696–99. DOI: 10.1002/cber.19040370280.
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