Uranium

[Name of the Class Period]



Introduction

Uranium is a chemical element of metallic silver-gray physical appearance. The chemical symbol of uranium is U. Uranium occurs in miniscule concentrations (a few parts per million or ppm) in water, rocks, soil, and living things. For use uranium must be extracted and concentrated from minerals containing it, such as Uranitita. Uranium was discovered in 1789 by MH Klaproth.

Discussion

Physical Characteristics

The chemical element, Uranium is a radioactive chemical element belonging to Group III of the Periodic System. This chemical element specifically belongs to the family of actinides and possesses an atomic number 92, and an atomic weight of 238.0289 (Buckley & Victoria.2003).

Uranium is a relatively soft and silvery-white metal of high density, which occurs in three forms: a-uranium at temperatures below 688 ° C, ß-uranium in the temperature range 688-776 ° C and ?-uranium in the temperature range between 776 ° C and its melting point of 1133 ° C (Buckley & Victoria.2003).

Uranium rhodium germanium (URhGe) is the first discovered alloy in very strong magnetic fields, a re-entrant superconductivity shows (Buckley & Victoria.2003).

Chemical characteristics

As mentioned earlier, Uranium belongs to the metal classification of chemical elements. Most acids dissolve uranium metal, while it is not attacked by bases. In air, the metal becomes coated with an oxide layer.

Natural uranium is a mixture of three isotopes: 238 U - 99,2739% with a half-life T ½ = 4,51 · 10 9 years, 235 U - 0,7024% (T ½ = 7,13 · 10 8 years) and 234 U - 0,0057% (T ½ = 2,48 · 10 5 years). Due to the atomic number of 92, Uranium has 92 protons and 92 electrons, with a valence of 6. Its core can contain between 142 and 146 neutrons. The most abundant isotopes of Uranium are 238 U that has 146 neutrons and ...