Uranium

Uranium, ₀₀U

Uranium
Pronunciation	/jʊˈreɪniəm/ ​(yuu-RAY-nee-əm)
Appearance	silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air
Standard atomic weight Ar°(U)
	238.02891(3)[1]
Uranium in the periodic table
Hydrogen Helium Lithium Beryllium Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine Neon Sodium Magnesium Aluminium Silicon Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Argon Potassium Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Gallium Germanium Arsenic Selenium Bromine Krypton Rubidium Strontium Yttrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Technetium Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Indium Tin Antimony Tellurium Iodine Xenon Caesium Barium Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury (element) Thallium Lead Bismuth Polonium Astatine Radon Francium Radium Actinium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium Lawrencium Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium Darmstadtium Roentgenium Copernicium Nihonium Flerovium Moscovium Livermorium Tennessine Oganesson Nd ↑ U ↓ (Uqh) protactinium ← uranium → neptunium
Group	f-block groups (no number)
Period	period 7
Block	f-block
Electron configuration	[Rn] 5f3 6d1 7s2
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 32, 21, 9, 2
Physical properties
Phase at STP	solid
Melting point	1405.3 K ​(1132.2 °C, ​2070 °F)
Boiling point	4404 K ​(4131 °C, ​7468 °F)
Density (near r.t.)	19.1 g/cm3
when liquid (at m.p.)	17.3 g/cm3
Heat of fusion	9.14 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization	417.1 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity	27.665 J/(mol·K)
Vapor pressure P (Pa) 1 10 100 1 k 10 k 100 k at T (K) 2325 2564 2859 3234 3727 4402
Atomic properties
Oxidation states	−1,[2] +1, +2, +3,[3] +4, +5, +6 (an amphoteric oxide)
Electronegativity	Pauling scale: 1.38
Ionization energies	1st: 597.6 kJ/mol 2nd: 1420 kJ/mol
Atomic radius	empirical: 156 pm
Covalent radius	196±7 pm
Van der Waals radius	186 pm
Spectral lines of uranium
Other properties
Natural occurrence	primordial
Crystal structure	​orthorhombic
Speed of sound thin rod	3155 m/s (at 20 °C)
Thermal expansion	13.9 µm/(m⋅K) (at 25 °C)
Thermal conductivity	27.5 W/(m⋅K)
Electrical resistivity	0.280 µΩ⋅m (at 0 °C)
Magnetic ordering	paramagnetic
Young's modulus	208 GPa
Shear modulus	111 GPa
Bulk modulus	100 GPa
Poisson ratio	0.23
Vickers hardness	1960–2500 MPa
Brinell hardness	2350–3850 MPa
CAS Number	7440-61-1
History
Naming	after planet Uranus, itself named after Greek god of the sky Uranus
Discovery	Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1789)
First isolation	Eugène-Melchior Péligot (1841)
Isotopes of uranium v e
Main isotopes[4] Decay abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct 232U synth 68.9 y α 228Th SF – 233U trace 1.592×105 y[5] α 229Th SF – 234U 0.005% 2.455×105 y α 230Th SF – 235U 0.720% 7.04×108 y α 231Th SF – 236U trace 2.342×107 y α 232Th SF – 238U 99.3% 4.468×109 y α 234Th SF – β−β− 238Pu
Category: Uranium view talk edit | references

Uranium is a chemical element (a metal) on the periodic table. It has an atomic number of 92, which means that a uranium atom has 92 protons in its center, the nucleus.

Uranium dug out of the ground is made from three different isotopes. The isotopes are different types of uranium with different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. Most of it is uranium-238; uranium-235 is less common; uranium-234 is the rarest. Pitchblende is the main ore that is mined for uranium.

Uranium-235 can be used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons by making a nuclear chain reaction. This turns the uranium-235 into uranium-236 and splits the nucleus into two smaller nuclei. This makes two completely different elements with smaller atomic numbers. The process is called nuclear fission and creates lots of heat. This heat makes it very useful for making steam in nuclear reactors, or for making explosions with nuclear weapons. Most such weapons use plutonium made from uranium-238. Uranium is slightly radioactive.

Uranium without its uranium-235 is called depleted uranium. It is less radioactive than natural uranium. It is used in anti-tank weapons. Uranium can also be used as a dye for stained glass or pottery.

Uranium is a dangerous substance. Because uranium is radioactive it is often seen with the hazard sign for radioactive elements, a group of three triangles with curved outer edges pointing in towards the middle (as you can see on the left). Uranium is a shiny white metal, but is usually seen in its oxide form which is black. Spent or partially spent uranium fuel rods are kept underwater, inside a nuclear reactor or in a spent fuel pool. Uranium can glow blue due to Cherenkov radiation. In addition to being radioactive, uranium is a heavy metal and is chemically toxic.

1. ↑ "Standard Atomic Weights: Uranium". CIAAW. 1999.
2. ↑ Th(-I) and U(-I) have been detected in the gas phase as octacarbonyl anions; see Chaoxian, Chi; Sudip, Pan; Jiaye, Jin; Luyan, Meng; Mingbiao, Luo; Lili, Zhao; Mingfei, Zhou; Gernot, Frenking (2019). "Octacarbonyl Ion Complexes of Actinides [An(CO)₈]^+/− (An=Th, U) and the Role of f Orbitals in Metal–Ligand Bonding". Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). 25 (50): 11772–11784. 25 (50): 11772–11784. doi:10.1002/chem.201902625. ISSN 0947-6539. PMC 6772027. PMID 31276242.
3. ↑ Morss, L.R.; Edelstein, N.M.; Fuger, J., eds. (2006). The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements (3rd ed.). Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 978-9048131464.
4. ↑ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
5. ↑ Magurno, B.A.; Pearlstein, S, eds. (1981). Proceedings of the conference on nuclear data evaluation methods and procedures. BNL-NCS 51363, vol. II (PDF). Upton, NY (USA): Brookhaven National Lab. pp. 835 ff. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
6. ↑ Morss, L.R.; Edelstein, N.M.; Fuger, J., eds. (2006). The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements (3rd ed.). Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 9048131464.