Chemical Elements

Images and Properties of the Actinoids

All actinoids. Click an image for the accordant element page.			Actinium	Images with blue frame are photomontages, images with red frames are from external sources.
			89 Ac
Thorium	Protactinium	Uranium	Neptunium	Plutonium	Americium	Curium
90 Th	91 Pa	92 U	93 Np	94 Pu	95 Am	96 Cm
Berkelium	Californium	Einsteinium	Fermium	Mendelevium	Nobelium	Lawrencium
97 Bk	98 Cf	99 Es	100 Fm	101 Md	102 No	103 Lr

The actinoids form an own series within the periodic table, like the lanthanoids and chemically similar to them, but here the 5f orbital is filled. All actinoids are radioactive metals and emit very hard γ-radiation. Their stability reaches a peak at thorium and uranium, towards the end of the series it decreases rapidly. Up to uranium, they can be found naturally on Earth. Neptunium and plutonium only occur in nature in tiny traces, these and all elements beyond them have to be made artificially. Chemically, the actinoids are more ignoble and toxic than the lanthanoids. Their usage mostly is restricted to peaceful and military use of nuclear energy and in small amounts for nuclear medicine. The handling of these elements is very difficult and dangerous and can only be done in big, well-protected facilities. Only thorium 232 and uranium 238 have a calculable risk potential for macroscopic amounts outside of high-security labs.

The images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, unless otherwise noted. Attribution by linking (outside of the internet credit with url) to the according element page.

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