top of page

Thorium Th

 

Where is thorium used--or where does it impact your everyday life?

 

Thorium  Th

Atomic number: 90            Atomic mass: 232.04

A metallic element, an actinide

Period number: 7

Melting point: 1750 oC (3182 oF)

Boiling point: 4790 oC (8654 oF)

Reaction with air: reacts with oxygen to form thorium dioxide

Reaction with water: water slowly attacks it, dissolving it very slowly

Electron configuration: 2,8, 18,32,18,10, 2    [Rn]  6d2  7s2

Source: LANL.gov

Researcher: Ines B

 

 

 

 

Euxenite-(Y)

Formula: (Y,Ca,Ce,U,Th)(Nb,Ta,Ti)2O6

Where found: Ambatafolsikely, Madagascar is on display at the National Museum of Natural History Washington DC

Containing: Thorium (radioactive, black, little bit shiny, abundance earth’s crust: 6 ppm, abundance universe: 4x10^-8 %) 

Photographer Oriane B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thorianite (OB)

Formula: ThO2

Where found: Asiva Region, Madagascar is on display at the National Museum of Natural History Washington DC, viewed during a Chemistry One field trip

Contains thorium

Photographer: Oriane B

A French raio valve from 1923 with a thoriated tungsten filament viewed at the Poldhu wireless station museum in Cornwall, England (where Moaconi completed the first trans-Atlantic radio signal between Cornwall and Newfoundland, Canada).

Gas lamps glow with a brighter, more even light, if the burning gas is covered with a diffusing mantle.  These often contain thorium nitrate and cerium salts.

Thorium-232 decays to radium-226 by alpha decay.  An alpha particle is a helium nucleus.  The decay series continues to lead-208.

SEE THE VIDEO of detecting radiation from thorium nitrate gas mantles

 

Thorium nitrate has a formula Th(NO3)2  

 

Thorium iodide, ThI4 coats the tungsten filament in halogen lamps--to reduce the loss of metal from the filament in the high temperatures that the bulb experiences during use.

 

WIS photographer  

Aeschynite YCaFeTh(TiNb)2(O,OH)6 from Iveland, Setesdal, Norway 

viewed during a Chemistry One field trip to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, USA

WIS Photographer

bottom of page