# Isotopes of thorium

(Redirected from Thorium-234)
Main isotopes of thorium
Iso­tope Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
227Th trace 18.68 d α 223Ra
228Th trace 1.9116 y α 224Ra
229Th trace 7917 y α 225Ra
230Th 0.02% 75400 y α 226Ra
231Th trace 25.5 h β 231Pa
232Th 99.98% 1.405×1010 y α 228Ra
234Th trace 24.1 d β 234Pa
Standard atomic weight (Ar, standard)
• 232.0377(4)[1]

Although thorium (90Th) has 6 naturally occurring isotopes, none of these isotopes are stable; however, one isotope, 232Th, is relatively stable, with a half-life of 1.405×1010 years, considerably longer than the age of the Earth, and even slightly longer than the generally accepted age of the universe. This isotope makes up nearly all natural thorium. As such, thorium is considered to be mononuclidic. However, in 2013 IUPAC reclassified thorium as binuclidic, due to large amounts in 230Th in deep seawater. Thorium has a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition and thus a standard atomic weight can be given.

Thirty radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable (after 232Th) being 230Th with a half-life of 75,380 years, 229Th with a half-life of 7,340 years, and 228Th with a half-life of 1.92 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than thirty days and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than ten minutes. One isotope, 229Th, has a nuclear isomer (or metastable state) with a remarkably low excitation energy,[2] recently measured to be 7.6 ± 0.5 eV.[3]

The known isotopes of thorium range in mass number from 209[4] to 238.

## Actinides vs fission products

Actinides and fission products by half-life
Actinides[5] by decay chain Half-life
range (y)
Fission products of 235U by yield[6]
4n 4n+1 4n+2 4n+3
4.5–7% 0.04–1.25% <0.001%
228Ra 4–6 155Euþ
244Cmƒ 241Puƒ 250Cf 227Ac 10–29 90Sr 85Kr 113mCdþ
232Uƒ 238Puƒ№ 243Cmƒ 29–97 137Cs 151Smþ 121mSn
248Bk[7] 249Cfƒ 242mAmƒ 141–351

No fission products
have a half-life
in the range of
100–210 k years ...

241Amƒ 251Cfƒ[8] 430–900
226Ra 247Bk 1.3 k – 1.6 k
240Puƒ№ 229Th 246Cmƒ 243Amƒ 4.7 k – 7.4 k
245Cmƒ 250Cm 8.3 k – 8.5 k
239Puƒ№ 24.1 k
230Th 231Pa 32 k – 76 k
236Npƒ 233Uƒ№ 234U 150 k – 250 k 99Tc 126Sn
248Cm 242Puƒ 327 k – 375 k 79Se
1.53 M 93Zr
237Npƒ№ 2.1 M – 6.5 M 135Cs 107Pd
236U 247Cmƒ 15 M – 24 M 129I
244Pu 80 M

... nor beyond 15.7 M years[9]

232Th 238U 235Uƒ№ 0.7 G – 14.1 G

Legend for superscript symbols
₡  has thermal neutron capture cross section in the range of 8–50 barns
ƒ  fissile
metastable isomer
№  naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM)
þ  neutron poison (thermal neutron capture cross section greater than 3k barns)
†  range 4–97 y: Medium-lived fission product
‡  over 200,000 y: Long-lived fission product

## Notable isotopes

### Thorium-228

228Th is an isotope of thorium with 138 neutrons. It was once named Radiothorium, due to its occurrence in the disintegration chain of thorium-232. It has a half-life of 1.9116 years. It undergoes alpha decay to 224Ra. Occasionally it decays by the unusual route of cluster decay, emitting a nucleus of 20O and producing stable 208Pb. It is a daughter isotope of 232U.

Th-228 has an atomic weight of 228.0287411 grams/mole. Uranium-232 decays to this nuclide by alpha emission.

### Thorium-229

229Th is a radioactive isotope of thorium that decays by alpha emission with a half-life of 7340 years. 229Th is produced by the decay of uranium-233, and its principal use is for the production of the medical isotopes actinium-225 and bismuth-213.[10]

#### Thorium-229m

Gamma ray spectroscopy has indicated that 229Th has a nuclear isomer 229mTh with a remarkably low excitation energy. This would make it the lowest-energy nuclear isomer known, and it might be possible to excite this nuclear state using lasers with wavelengths in the UV-C range. The isomer might have application for high density energy storage,[11] an accurate clock,[12][13] as a qubit for quantum computing, or to test the effect of the chemical environment on nuclear decay rates.[14]

The isomer transition energy of 229Th is currently derived from indirect measurements of the gamma-ray spectrum resulting from the decay of 233U. In 1989–1993 first measurements were performed using high-quality germanium detectors, resulting in an estimate of E = 3.5±1.0 eV for the 229Th isomer transition energy.[15][16] This unnaturally low value triggered a multitude of investigations, both theoretical and experimental, trying to determine the transition energy precisely and to specify other properties of the isomer state of 229Th (such as the lifetime and the magnetic moment). However, searches for direct photon emission from the low-lying excited state have failed to report an unambiguous signal. New indirect measurements with an advanced high-resolution x-ray microcalorimeter were carried out in 2007[3] yielding a new value for the transition energy of E = 7.6±0.5 eV, corrected to E = 7.8±0.5 eV in 2009.[17] This value is currently the most accepted one in the community but cannot be considered definite until a direct measurement is made successfully. The shift into the UV-C domain probably explains why previous attempts to directly observe the transition were unsuccessful.

The lifetime of the isomer has been measured to be 6±1 hours. The measurement was done by collecting recoiled 229mTh atoms in a MgF2 crystal and measuring the light emission variation over time. The measurement is close to the previously predicted lifetime of 5 hrs derived from a transition energy 7.6 eV or 7.8 eV,[18][3][17] in a way validating these transition energies. However a different estimate for the lifetime at these transition energies is between 0.46 106 s/7.83 = 0.27 hr and 1.79 106 s/7.83 = 1.0 hr.[19] Moreover, the validity of the lifetime measurement has been questioned.[20] Neutral(1+,2+) atoms are expected have a sub-millisecond lifetime due to "Internal Conversion" if the transition energy exceeds the ionisation energy of 6.3 eV (11.5 eV, 18.3 eV).[21] If this isomer were to decay it would produce a gamma ray (defined by its origin, not its wavelength) in the ultraviolet range.

In 2016, the transition was directly detected by neutralization on an MCP plate.[21][22] However the transition energy in the 229Th2+ nuclei was only weakly constrained by the first and third ionization energies of Thorium, to between 6.3 and 18.3 eV (200–70 nm), because the experiment was optimized for detection rather than precision measurement.[23] Note that it appears conceivable that the ionization energy of neutralized Thorium on an MCP plate gets shifted with respect to a free atom, given that the binding energy of such heavy atoms is substantial and the work function of the used thorium (3.4 eV) and the CsI MCP surface (3.4 eV) deviates significantly from the ionisation energy of 6.3 eV, resulting in a minimum transition energy of only 3.4 eV - 6.25 eV[24][1][2][25][3]

### Thorium-230

230Th is a radioactive isotope of thorium that can be used to date corals and determine ocean current flux. Ionium was a name given early in the study of radioactive elements to the 230Th isotope produced in the decay chain of 238U before it was realized that ionium and thorium are chemically identical. The symbol Io was used for this supposed element. (The name is still used in ionium–thorium dating.)

### Thorium-231

231Th has 141 neutrons. It is the decay product of uranium-235. It is found in very small amounts on the earth and has a half-life of 25.5 hours. When it decays it emits a beta ray and forms protactinium-231. It has a decay energy of 0.39 MeV. It has a mass of 231.0363043 grams/mole.

### Thorium-232

232Th is the only primordial nuclide of thorium and makes up effectively all of natural thorium, with other isotopes of thorium appearing only in trace amounts as relatively short-lived decay products of uranium and thorium.[26] The isotope decays by alpha decay with a half-life of 1.405×1010 years, over three times the age of the Earth and more than the age of the universe. Its decay chain is the thorium series eventually ending in lead-208. The remainder of the chain is quick; the longest half-lives in it are 5.75 years for radium-228 and 1.91 years for thorium-228, with all other half-lives totaling less than 5 days.[27]

232Th is a fertile material able to absorb a neutron and undergo transmutation into the fissile nuclide uranium-233, which is the basis of the thorium fuel cycle.[28] In the form of Thorotrast, a thorium dioxide suspension, it was used as contrast medium in early X-ray diagnostics. Thorium-232 is now classified as carcinogenic.[29]

### Thorium-233

233Th is an isotope of thorium that decays into protactinium-233 through beta decay. It has a half-life of 21.83 minutes.[30]

### Thorium-234

234Th is an isotope of thorium whose nuclei contain 144 neutrons. Th-234 has a half-life of 24.1 days, and when it decays, it emits a beta particle, and in so doing, it transmutes into protactinium-234. Th-234 has a mass of 234.0436 atomic mass units (amu), and it has a decay energy of about 270 keV (kiloelectronvolts). Uranium-238 usually decays into this isotope of thorium (although in rare cases it can undergo spontaneous fission instead).

## List of isotopes

nuclide
symbol
historic
name
Z(p) N(n)
isotopic mass (u)

half-life[n 1] decay
mode(s)[31][n 2]
daughter
isotope(s)[n 3]
nuclear
spin
representative
isotopic
composition
(mole fraction)
range of natural
variation
(mole fraction)
excitation energy
209Th 90 119 209.01772(11) 7(5) ms
[3.8(+69−15)]
5/2−#
210Th 90 120 210.015075(27) 17(11) ms
[9(+17−4) ms]
α 206Ra 0+
β+ (rare) 210Ac
211Th 90 121 211.01493(8) 48(20) ms
[0.04(+3−1) s]
α 207Ra 5/2−#
β+ (rare) 211Ac
212Th 90 122 212.01298(2) 36(15) ms
[30(+20-10) ms]
α (99.7%) 208Ra 0+
β+ (.3%) 212Ac
213Th 90 123 213.01301(8) 140(25) ms α 209Ra 5/2−#
β+ (rare) 213Ac
214Th 90 124 214.011500(18) 100(25) ms α 210Ra 0+
215Th 90 125 215.011730(29) 1.2(2) s α 211Ra (1/2−)
216Th 90 126 216.011062(14) 26.8(3) ms α (99.99%) 212Ra 0+
β+ (.006%) 216Ac
216m1Th 2042(13) keV 137(4) µs (8+)
216m2Th 2637(20) keV 615(55) ns (11−)
217Th 90 127 217.013114(22) 240(5) µs α 213Ra (9/2+)
218Th 90 128 218.013284(14) 109(13) ns α 214Ra 0+
219Th 90 129 219.01554(5) 1.05(3) µs α 215Ra 9/2+#
β+ (10−7%) 219Ac
220Th 90 130 220.015748(24) 9.7(6) µs α 216Ra 0+
EC (2×10−7%) 220Ac
221Th 90 131 221.018184(10) 1.73(3) ms α 217Ra (7/2+)
222Th 90 132 222.018468(13) 2.237(13) ms α 218Ra 0+
EC (1.3×10−8%) 222Ac
223Th 90 133 223.020811(10) 0.60(2) s α 219Ra (5/2)+
224Th 90 134 224.021467(12) 1.05(2) s α 220Ra 0+
β+β+ (rare) 224Ra
225Th 90 135 225.023951(5) 8.72(4) min α (90%) 221Ra (3/2)+
EC (10%) 225Ac
226Th 90 136 226.024903(5) 30.57(10) min α 222Ra 0+
227Th Radioactinium 90 137 227.0277041(27) 18.68(9) d α 223Ra 1/2+ Trace[n 4]
228Th Radiothorium 90 138 228.0287411(24) 1.9116(16) y α 224Ra 0+ Trace[n 5]
CD (1.3×10−11%) 208Pb
20O
229Th 90 139 229.031762(3) 7.34(16)×103 y α 225Ra 5/2+
229mTh 7.6(5) eV 70(50) h IT 229Th 3/2+
230Th[n 6] Ionium 90 140 230.0331338(19) 7.538(30)×104 y α 226Ra 0+ 0.0002(2) [n 7]
CD (5.6×10−11%) 206Hg
24Ne
SF (5×10−11%) (Various)
231Th Uranium Y 90 141 231.0363043(19) 25.52(1) h β 231Pa 5/2+ Trace[n 4]
α (10−8%) 227Ra
232Th[n 8] Thorium 90 142 232.0380553(21) 1.405(6)×1010 y α 228Ra 0+ 0.9998(2)
ββ (rare) 232U
SF (1.1×10−9%) (various)
CD (2.78×10−10%) 182Yb
26Ne
24Ne
233Th 90 143 233.0415818(21) 21.83(4) min β 233Pa 1/2+
234Th Uranium X1 90 144 234.043601(4) 24.10(3) d β 234mPa 0+ Trace[n 7]
235Th 90 145 235.04751(5) 7.2(1) min β 235Pa (1/2+)#
236Th 90 146 236.04987(21)# 37.5(2) min β 236Pa 0+
237Th 90 147 237.05389(39)# 4.8(5) min β 237Pa 5/2+#
238Th 90 148 238.0565(3)# 9.4(20) min β 238Pa 0+
1. ^ Bold for nuclides with half-lives longer than the age of the universe (nearly stable)
2. ^ Abbreviations:
CD: Cluster decay
EC: Electron capture
IT: Isomeric transition
SF: Spontaneous fission
3. ^ Bold for stable isotopes
4. ^ a b Intermediate decay product of 235U
5. ^ Intermediate decay product of 232Th
6. ^ Used in Uranium–thorium dating
7. ^ a b Intermediate decay product of 238U
8. ^

### Notes

• Geologically exceptional samples are known in which the isotopic composition lies outside the reported range. The uncertainty in the atomic mass may exceed the stated value for such specimens.
• Values marked # are not purely derived from experimental data, but at least partly from systematic trends. Spins with weak assignment arguments are enclosed in parentheses.
• Uncertainties are given in concise form in parentheses after the corresponding last digits. Uncertainty values denote one standard deviation, except isotopic composition and standard atomic mass from IUPAC, which use expanded uncertainties.

## Uses

Thorium has been suggested for use in Thorium-based nuclear power.

It is radioactive, in many countries the use of thorium in consumer products is banned or discouraged.

It is currently used in cathodes of vacuum tubes, for a combination of physical stability at high temperature and a low work energy required to remove an electron from its surface.

It has, for about a century, been used in mantles of gas and vapor lamps such as gas lights and camping lanterns.

### Low dispersion lenses

Thorium was also used in certain glass elements of Aero-Ektar lenses made by Kodak during World War II. Thus they are mildly radioactive.[32] Two of the glass elements in the f/2.5 Aero-Ektar lenses are 11 and 13% thorium by weight. The Thorium-containing glasses were used because they have a high refractive index with a low dispersion (variation of index with wavelength), a highly desirable property. Many surviving Aero-Ektar lenses have a tea colored tint, possibly due to radiation damage to the glass.

As these lenses were used for aerial reconnaissance, the radiation level is not high enough to fog film over a short period. This would indicate the radiation level is reasonably safe. However. when not in use, it would be prudent to store these lenses as far as possible from normally inhabited areas; allowing the inverse square relationship to attenuate the radiation.[33]

## References

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5. ^ Plus radium (element 88). While actually a sub-actinide, it immediately precedes actinium (89) and follows a three-element gap of instability after polonium (84) where no nuclides have half-lives of at least four years (the longest-lived nuclide in the gap is radon-222 with a half life of less than four days). Radium's longest lived isotope, at 1,600 years, thus merits the element's inclusion here.
6. ^ Specifically from thermal neutron fission of U-235, e.g. in a typical nuclear reactor.
7. ^ Milsted, J.; Friedman, A. M.; Stevens, C. M. (1965). "The alpha half-life of berkelium-247; a new long-lived isomer of berkelium-248". Nuclear Physics. 71 (2): 299. Bibcode:1965NucPh..71..299M. doi:10.1016/0029-5582(65)90719-4.
"The isotopic analyses disclosed a species of mass 248 in constant abundance in three samples analysed over a period of about 10 months. This was ascribed to an isomer of Bk248 with a half-life greater than 9 y. No growth of Cf248 was detected, and a lower limit for the β half-life can be set at about 104 y. No alpha activity attributable to the new isomer has been detected; the alpha half-life is probably greater than 300 y."
8. ^ This is the heaviest nuclide with a half-life of at least four years before the "Sea of Instability".
9. ^ Excluding those "classically stable" nuclides with half-lives significantly in excess of 232Th; e.g., while 113mCd has a half-life of only fourteen years, that of 113Cd is nearly eight quadrillion years.
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15. ^ Reich, C. W.; Helmer, R. G. (Jan 1990). "Energy separation of the doublet of intrinsic states at the ground state of 229Th". Phys. Rev. Lett. American Physical Society. 64 (3): 271–273. Bibcode:1990PhRvL..64..271R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.271.
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18. ^ Zhao, Xinxin; Yenny Natali Martinez de Escobar; Robert Rundberg,; Evelyn M. Bond,; Allen Moody; David J. Vieira (2012). "Observation of the Deexcitation of the ^{229m}Th Nuclear Isomer". Physical Review Letters. 109 (16). Bibcode:2012PhRvL.109p0801Z. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.160801. ISSN 0031-9007.
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21. ^ a b von der Wense, Lars; Seiferle, Benedict; Laatiaoui, Mustapha; Neumayr, Jürgen B.; Maier, Hans-Jörg; Wirth, Hans-Friedrich; Mokry, Christoph; Runke, Jörg; Eberhardt, Klaus; Düllmann, Christoph E.; Trautmann, Norbert G.; Thirolf, Peter G. (5 May 2016). "Direct detection of the 229Th nuclear clock transition". Nature. 533 (7601): 47–51. Bibcode:2016Natur.533...47V. doi:10.1038/nature17669.
22. ^ "Results on 229mThorium published in "Nature"" (Press release). Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. 2016-05-06.
23. ^ Seiferle, Benedict; von der Wense, Lars; Laatiaoui, Mustapha; Thirolf, Peter G. (24 November 2015). "A VUV detection system for the direct photonic identification of the first excited isomeric state of 229Th". arXiv:.
24. ^ Rivière, J. C. (1962). "The Work Function of Thorium". Proceedings of the Physical Society. 80 (1): 124. Bibcode:1962PPS....80..124R. doi:10.1088/0370-1328/80/1/314. ISSN 0370-1328.
25. ^ Fairchild, S. B.; Back, T. C.; Murray, P. T.; Cahay, M. M.; Shiffler, D. A. (2011-04-13). "Low work function CsI coatings for enhanced field emission properties". Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films. 29 (3): 031402. doi:10.1116/1.3581058. ISSN 0734-2101.
26. ^ Isotopes Project Home Page, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Isotopes of Thorium (Z=90)". Archived from the original on 2010-02-03. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
27. ^ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. "Th-232 Decay Chain". Retrieved 2010-01-25.
28. ^ World Nuclear Association. "Thorium". Retrieved 2010-01-25.
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31. ^ "Universal Nuclide Chart". nucleonica. (Registration required (help)).
32. ^ f2.5 Aero Ektar Lenses Some images.
33. ^ Michael S. Briggs (January 16, 2002). "Aero-Ektar Lenses". Retrieved 2015-08-28.