Thorium dioxide


Thorium dioxide, also called thorium oxide, is a crystalline solid, often white or yellow in colour. Also known as thoria, it is mainly a by-product of lanthanide and uranium production. Thorianite is the name of the mineralogical form of thorium dioxide. It is moderately rare and crystallizes in an isometric system. The melting point of thorium oxide is 3300 °C – the highest of all known oxides. Only a few elements and a few compounds have higher melting points. All thorium compounds, including the dioxide, are radioactive because there are no stable isotopes of thorium.

Structure and reactions

Thoria exists as two polymorphs. One has a fluorite crystal structure. This is uncommon among binary dioxides. The band gap of thoria is about 6 eV. A tetragonal form of thoria is also known.
Thorium dioxide is more stable than thorium monoxide. Only with careful control of reaction conditions can oxidation of thorium metal give the monoxide rather than the dioxide. At extremely high temperatures, the dioxide can convert to the monoxide either by a disproportionation reaction above or by simple dissociation above.

Applications

Nuclear fuels

Thorium dioxide can be used in nuclear reactors as ceramic fuel pellets, typically contained in nuclear fuel rods clad with zirconium alloys. Thorium is not fissile ; hence, it must be used as a nuclear reactor fuel in conjunction with fissile isotopes of either uranium or plutonium. This can be achieved by blending thorium with uranium or plutonium, or using it in its pure form in conjunction with separate fuel rods containing uranium or plutonium. Thorium dioxide offers advantages over conventional uranium dioxide fuel pellets, because of its higher thermal conductivity, considerably higher melting point, and chemical stability.
Thorium dioxide can be turned into a nuclear fuel by breeding it into uranium-233. The high thermal stability of thorium dioxide allows applications in flame spraying and high-temperature ceramics.

Alloys

Thorium dioxide is used as a stabilizer in tungsten electrodes in TIG welding, electron tubes, and aircraft gas turbine engines. As an alloy, thoriated tungsten metal is not easily deformed because the high-fusion material thoria augments the high-temperature mechanical properties, and thorium helps stimulate the emission of electrons. It is the most popular oxide additive because of its low cost, but is being phased out in favor of non-radioactive elements such as cerium, lanthanum and zirconium.
Thoria-dispersed nickel finds its applications in various high-temperature operations like combustion engines because it is a good creep-resistant material. It can also be used for hydrogen trapping.

Catalysis

Thorium dioxide has almost no value as a commercial catalyst, but such applications have been well investigated. It is a catalyst in the Ruzicka large ring synthesis. Other applications that have been explored include petroleum cracking, conversion of ammonia to nitric acid and preparation of sulfuric acid.

Radiocontrast agents

Thorium dioxide was the primary ingredient in Thorotrast, a once-common radiocontrast agent used for cerebral angiography, however, it causes a rare form of cancer many years after administration. This use was replaced with injectable iodine or ingestable barium sulfate suspension as standard X-ray contrast agents.

Lamp mantles

Another major use in the past was in gas mantle of lanterns developed by Carl Auer von Welsbach in 1890, which are composed of 99% ThO2 and 1% cerium(IV) oxide. Even as late as the 1980s it was estimated that about half of all ThO2 produced was used for this purpose. Some mantles still use thorium, but yttrium oxide is used increasingly as a replacement.

Glass manufacture

When added to glass, thorium dioxide helps increase its refractive index and decrease dispersion. Such glass finds application in high-quality lenses for cameras and scientific instruments. The radiation from these lenses can darken them and turn them yellow over a period of years and degrade film, but the health risks are minimal. Yellowed lenses may be restored to their original colourless state by lengthy exposure to intense ultraviolet radiation. Thorium dioxide has since been replaced by rare-earth oxides such as lanthanum oxide in almost all modern high-index glasses, as they provide similar effects and are not radioactive.