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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
