actinium

[ak-tin-ee-uhm]

actinium [Gr.,=like a ray], radioactive chemical element; symbol Ac; at. no. 89; at. wt. 227.0278; m.p. about 1,050°C;; b.p. 3,200°C;±300°C;; sp. gr. 10.07; valence +3. Actinium is a silver-white metal with a cubic crystalline structure. It is found with uranium minerals in pitchblende. The pure metal can be prepared by reducing its fluoride with lithium vapor at about 1,200°C;. Actinium-227, the most stable isotope, has a half-life of 21.6 years. The other seven isotopes of actinium have very short half-lives ranging from 10 days to less than 1 min. Actinium is in Group 3 of the periodic table. Its chemical properties are similar to those of lanthanum and of members of the actinide series, of which it is usually considered the first member. It reacts with water to form an insoluble hydroxide; with halides to form a trifluoride, trichloride, bromide, or iodide; with oxalic acid to form the oxalate; with oxygen or sulfur to form the sesquioxide or sesquisulfide. Actinium was first recognized in 1899 by André Debierne in uranium residues from pitchblende after the radium was extracted by Pierre and Marie Curie. It was later found to be identical with an element discovered in 1902 by Fritz Giesel and which he called emanium.

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Actinium

Actinium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Ac and atomic number 89, which was discovered in 1899, the earliest discovered of the radioactive elements.

Characteristics

Actinium is a silvery, radioactive, metallic element. Due to its intense radioactivity, actinium glows in the dark with a pale blue light. The chemical behavior of actinium is similar to that of the rare earth element lanthanum.

Actinium 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. The actinium isotope ²²⁷Ac is a transient member of the actinium series decay chain, which begins with the parent isotope ²³⁵U (or ²³⁹Pu) and ends with the stable lead isotope ²⁰⁷Pb. Another actinium isotope (²²⁵Ac) is transiently present in the neptunium series decay chain, beginning with ²³⁷Np (or ²³³U) and ending with near-stable bismuth (²⁰⁹Bi).

Applications

It is about 150 times as radioactive as radium, making it valuable as a neutron source for energy. Otherwise it has no significant industrial applications.

²²⁵Ac is used in medicine to produce ²¹³ in a reusable generator or can be used alone as an agent for radio-immunotherapy for Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT). ²²⁵Ac was first produced artificially by the ITU in Germany using a cyclotron and by Dr Graeme Melville at St George Hospital in Sydney using a linac in 2000.

History

Actinium was discovered in 1899 by André-Louis Debierne, a French chemist, who separated it from pitchblende as a substance being similar to titanium (1899) or similar to thorium (1890). Friedrich Oskar Giesel independently discovered actinium in 1902 as a substance being similar to lanthanum and called it "emanium" in 1904. After a comparison of substances in 1904, Debierne's name was retained because it had seniority.

The history of the discovery stayed questionable and in publications from 1971 and later in 2000 showed that the claims of André-Louis Debierne in 1904 conflict with the publications in 1899 and 1890.

The word actinium comes from the Greek aktis, aktinos, meaning beam or ray.

Occurrence

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

Isotopes

Naturally occurring actinium is composed of 1 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 10.0 days, and ²²⁶Ac with a half-life of 29.37 h. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lifes that are less than 10 hours and the majority of these have half lifes that are less than 1 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 2 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 u (²⁰⁶Ac) to 236 u (²³⁶Ac).

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 be fatal.