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Protactinium

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geochemistry

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

  • 251 Accesses

FormalPara Element Data

Atomic Symbol: Pa

Atomic Number: 91

Atomic Weight: 231.0359 g mol−1

Isotopes and Abundances: 231Pa (t1/2 32,760 year) ~100 % 234Pa (t1/2 70 s)

1 Atm Melting Point: 1569 °C

1 Atm Boiling Point: 4000 °C

Common Valences: 5+, 4+, 6+

Ionic Radii: Pa5+ VI-fold: 78 pm, VIII-fold 91 pm

Pauling Electronegativity: 1.5

First Ionization Energy: 568 kJ mol−1

Chondritic (CI) Abundance: 2.7 fg/g

Silicate Earth Abundance: 7.5 fg/g

Crustal Abundance: 880 fg/g

Seawater Abundance: 1 fg/g

Core Abundance: ~0

Properties

The element protactinium (Pa) is a short-lived nuclide belonging to the decay chain of 235-Uranium and the third element in the actinide series (Z = 91) with an atomic mass of 231.0359. At room temperature it is a tetragonal solid gray metal, with a calculated density of 15.37 g/cm3 and an atomic radius of 1.63 pm when XII-fold coordinated in its metallic state (Elson, 1954). The electron configuration of Pa is [Rn] 5f2 6d1 7 s2. It has been suggested that Pa most...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Julie Prytulak

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  1. Julie Prytulak
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Correspondence to Julie Prytulak .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Cornell University Department of Earth, Ithaca, New York, USA

    William M. White

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Prytulak, J. (2016). Protactinium. In: White, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_273-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_273-1

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