Protactinium - Periodic Table of Videos

Here's a new video about Protactinium, number 91 on the periodic table!

(*)
Isotope 238 has half life 6.8 hrs
Isotope 238m has half life 1.17 mins

[lohphat]

Note how the modern printed periodic table referenced at 5:15 has the old spelling of "Protoactinium".

[DanDart]

I always love when the Prof says "...I have no idea."

[SlideRulePirate]

So "Protoactinium" decayed into "Protactinium" by emission of an "O" particle. 

[pincushion]

I literally couldn't believe it when i heard the news about the fire. Of all the people/places it could happen it had to happen to such an important part of the scientific community. I couldn't tell you how happy I was when I found out no one was injured. Very good luck in the future and can't wait to see it finished! Peace :)

[MattSiegel]

procrastinium brought me here.  half life 3.5 mins :)

[marcelopacheco]

Protactinium 233 is very important in the Thorium nuclear fuel cycle.
All Thorium in nature is Th232, when it gets a neutron it becomes Th233 which quickly decays to Pa233, but Pa233 has close to one month half life, so it sticks around for a long time, and Pa233 has a large neutron absorption cross section, Pa233 absorbing a neutron is very undersirable, so most efficient Thorium reactors keep the Th232 in a low neutron density area, so the Pa233 has a very low probability of getting a neutron, instead decaying to U233 by itself. U233 is the best possible nuclear fuel we can breed (much better than Plutonium and better than U235). When Pa233 gets a neutron it becomes Pa234 which decays to U234 which is a bad nuclear fuel.
U233 fissions in a regular reactor with like 92% probability of fission, while U235 has 85% probability of fission, so a pure Thorium/U233 reactor greatly avoids making Plutonium with the 92% probability of U233 fission + 85% probability of U235 fission.
Enough nuclear energy nerd overload !

[Skelpolu]

4:12
Half Life: 32, 760 years
Half Life: 3[...]
Half Life 3 CONFIRMED

[thebird-kf]

“Protactinium is one of the element that is more than totally useless”


*glass breaks*


Protactinium: 😳

[nemanja]

I don't know about you guys but no I love saying Protactinium, it rolls off the tongue so nicely and it sounds like some imaginary, super-high tech material.

[KarbineKyle]

Great videos! I'd like to see more of this element in the future. Correction: It should be protactinium-231 with the half-life of 32, 760 years, not protactinium-238. It's possible you could find trace quantities in compounds in the same column, that contains vanadium, niobium, tantalum, or praseodymium compounds or ores, much like barium ores contain trace amounts of radium. You would need very sensitive equipment, to get the best results.

[fasulia]

Can we get an update on the recent fire that burned down Nottingham's chemistry building?

[Tocsin-Bang]

One of my favourites, used to love doing a half-life demonstration when I was teaching using protoactinium, still prefer the old name, as I actually find it easier to pronounce and I love history.

[KarbineKyle]

There are a few errors: @ 2:13, Pa-238 is not the most stable radioisotope of Pa. It's Pa-231, with a half-life of 32, 760 years. The description has two errors: It's Pa-234m, with a half-life of 1.17 minutes, and Pa-234, with a half-life of 6.7 hours. Not Pa-238. There's also no known metastable isomer of Pa-238. Pa-238 has a half-life of 2.27 minutes. I'm just pointing it out. Anyway, I always enjoy your videos! Thanks!

[tampakirby]

Protactinium-231 has the half-life of over 32, 000 years. Protactinium-238 is only just over a minute. Anyways, just a small correction. Keep up the awesome videos! I can't wait for more actinides!

[DeanMorrison]

I always love all of the Prof's videos but this is probably the most unexpectedly interesting ones!

[ZBABOUINOS]

Prot-actinium,
from Greek protos (πρῶτος) meaning first,
from Greek aktis (ακτίς) meaning ray or beam

[BradSchmor]

Dear Sirs,

Your noting of protactinium's atomic weight being lower than that of thorium is indeed correct, but another example is visible right next to it - neptunium (237) being lower than plutonium (238). And again - right next to that - americium (243) being lower than plutonium (244). I realize that into these elements we don't have the same "averaging" of atomic weights that we have from uranium downwards, and instead give the weight of the most stable isotope, but it's a trend that repeats numerous times in the actinides - and beyond - 106 to 107, and 108 to 109. Also nickel is slightly lower than cobalt below it.

[iammaxhailme]

Wow. I have a chemistry degree, and I never realized that about Argon and Potassium's atomic mass. Now I feel silly!

[levitheentity]

3:43
are you sure?
I think Bismuth isn't radioactive, and it's right after lead. Once it's number is 83 while lead is 82.

[DeanMorrison]

I learned the Periodic Table from a version I saw of Medeleevs in the early 1970's in a kis magazine called 'Look and Learn" which was square.
So important to me I cut it out and stuck it on my wall
Everything odd was bundled into a 'Rare Earths' box.
It's been fun since to see the rest of the table populated, some surprisingly useful, other transuranic ones surprisingly pointless.
Apart from smoke alarms ;)