Actinium

89

radium ← actinium → thorium


La
↑
Ac
↓
Ute




periodic table




General


Name, Symbol, Number

actinium, Ac, 89


Chemical series
actinides


Group, Period, Block

3, 7, f


Appearance
silvery


Atomic mass
(227) g/mol


Electron configuration
[Rn] 6d1 7s2


Electrons per shell
2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 9, 2


Physical properties


Phase
solid


Density (near r.t.)
10 g/cm³


Melting point
(circa) 1323 K
(1050 °C, 1922 °F)


Boiling point
3471 K
(3198 °C, 5788 °F)


Heat of fusion
14 kJ/mol


Heat of vaporization
400 kJ/mol


Heat capacity
(25 °C) 27.2 J/(mol·K)


Atomic properties


Crystal structure
cubic face centered


Oxidation states
3
(neutral oxide)


Electronegativity
1.1 (Pauling scale)


Ionization energies

1st: 499 kJ/mol


2nd: 1170 kJ/mol


Atomic radius
195 pm


Miscellaneous


Magnetic ordering
no data


Thermal conductivity
(300 K) 12 W/(m·K)


CAS registry number
7440-34-8


Notable isotopes




Main article: Isotopes of actinium


iso

NA

half-life

DM

DE (MeV)

DP


225Ac

syn

10 days

α

5.935

221Fr


226Ac

syn

29.37 hours

β-

1.117

226Th


ε

0.640

226Ra


α

5.536

222Fr


227Ac

100%

21.773 years

β-

0.045

227Th


α

5.042

223Fr


Actinium (chemical symbol Ac, atomic number 89) is a silvery, radioactive, metallic element. Due to its intense radioactivity, it glows in the dark with a pale blue light. It is about 150 times as radioactive as radium and is therefore a valuable source of neutrons. Its isotope 225Ac is used in nuclear medicine.

Contents

1 Occurrence and production
2 Etymology and history
3 Notable characteristics

3.1 Isotopes


4 Applications
5 Precautions
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
9 Credits



Occurrence and production
Actinium is found in trace amounts in uranium ore, but it is more commonly made in milligram amounts by the neutron irradiation of 226Ra in a nuclear reactor. Actinium metal has been prepared by the reduction of actinium fluoride with lithium vapor at about 1100 to 1300 ºC.

Etymology and history
The word actinium comes from the Greek aktis, aktinos, meaning beam or ray.
Actinium was discovered in 1899 by André-Louis Debierne, a French chemist, who separated it from pitchblende. Friedrich Oskar Giesel independently discovered actinium in 1902.

Notable characteristics
In the periodic table, actinium is situated in period seven and group three. It lies just below the rare earth lanthanum, and its chemical behavior is similar to that of lanthanum.
Actinium is often considered as the first of the actinides, which are a group of "inner transition metals." From the standpoint of their electronic structure, the actinides are characterized by the gradual filling of the 5f subshell. Actinium, however, has no electrons in its 5f subshell, and it best fits with the elements of group three.
It is found only in traces in uranium ores as 227Ac, an α and β emitter, with a half-life of 21.773 years. One ton of uranium ore contains about a tenth of a gram of actinium.

Isotopes
Naturally occurring actinium is composed of one radioactive isotope, 227Ac. 36 radioisotopes have been characterized with the most stable being 227Ac with a half-life of 21.772 y, 225Ac with a half-life of ten days, and 226Ac with a half-life of 29.37 h. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than ten hours and the majority of these have half lives that are less than one minute. The shortest-lived isotope of actinium is 217Ac which decays through alpha decay and electron capture. It has a half-life of 69 ns. Actinium also has two meta states.
Purified 227Ac comes into equilibrium with its decay products at the end of 185 days, and then decays according to its 21.773-year half-life.
The isotopes of actinium range in atomic weight from 206 amu (206Ac) to 236 amu (236Ac).

Applications
Actinium is about 150 times as radioactive as radium, making it valuable as a neutron source. Otherwise, it has no significant industrial applications.
225Ac is used in medicine to produce 213Bi in a reusable generator or can be used alone as an agent for radio-immunotherapy.

Precautions
227Ac is extremely radioactive, and in terms of its potential for radiation induced health effects, 227Ac is even more dangerous than plutonium. Ingesting even small amounts of 227Ac would present a serious health hazard.

See also
Chemical element
Lanthanum
Metal
Periodic table
Inner transition metal
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Actinium Los Alamos National Laboratory. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
Chang, Raymond. Chemistry (9th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 2006. ISBN 0073221031
Cotton, F. Albert, and Geoffrey Wilkinson. Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, (4th ed.), New York: Wiley, 1980. ISBN 0-471-02775-8
Greenwood, N.N. and A. Earnshaw. Chemistry of the Elements, (2nd Edition). Oxford, U.K.; Burlington, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier Science, 1998. ISBN 0750633654 Online version available at Knovel Retrieved September 12, 2007.
External links
All links retrieved April 27, 2021.

Actinium WebElements.com.
The Element Actinium Jefferson Lab.

Credits
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