Talk:Protactinium

Protactinium (final version) received a peer review by Wikipedia editors, which on 26 August 2023 was archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

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Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 30, 2010	Peer review	Reviewed
April 30, 2011	Good article nominee	Listed
September 29, 2014	Good topic candidate	Promoted
February 15, 2024	Good topic removal candidate	Demoted
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on December 6, 2010. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that in 1926, Lise Meitner (pictured), a co-discoverer of protactinium, became Germany's first female full professor in physics?
Current status: Good article

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Discovery

Pubchem states that " IUPAC who officially named it protactinium and confirmed Hahn and Meitner as co-discoverers". The infobox and text says different. What to do? (and: what means 'co-discoverers': the two together or 'co' with Fajan and Gohring?). -DePiep (talk) 19:41, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@DePiep: With these radioelements there tends to be a conflation between discovering the isotope and the element. In the past the most stable isotope gave the element its name, thus causing the confusion. Hahn and Meitner were the first to discover ²³¹Pa; in the past, "protactinium" also meant this isotope as well as the element. But Fajans and Göhring had discovered ²³⁴Pa years before.

A similar confusion goes on with radon. The most stable isotope, ²²²Rn, was discovered in 1900 by Dorn. The fact that Rutherford and Owens had already discovered ²²⁰Rn the previous year is generally overlooked. Double sharp (talk) 08:37, 12 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Crystal structure of PaF₅

Greenwood&Earnshaw^[1] mentions PaF₅ and β-UF₅ are 7-coordinated, which comes from this citation they cited.^[2] This is outdated, as the crystal structure of β-UF₅ was revised around the same time, it is actually 8-coordinated.^[3] However I'm not sure could we write "PaF₅ is 8-coordinated" into the article, as they have the same structure.

"PaF₅ is monoclinic" part comes out from nowhere, only PaCl₅ is monoclinic,^[4] and Greenwood&Earnshaw does not mention these compounds crystal structure. PaF₅ is actually tetragonal, just like β-UF₅.^[5] --Nucleus hydro elemon (talk) 07:29, 9 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth–Heinemann. pp. 1270, 1271. ISBN 978-0080379418.
^ Taylor, J.C. (1976). "Systematic features in the structural chemistry of the uranium halides, oxyhalides and related transition metal and lanthanide halides". Coordination Chemistry Reviews. 20 (3): 206, 213, 214. doi:10.1016/S0010-8545(00)80325-2.
^ Ryan, R. R.; Penneman, R. A.; Asprey, L. B.; Paine, R. T. (1976-12-01). "Single-crystal X-ray study of β-uranium pentafluoride. The eight coordination of U V". Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry. 32 (12): 3311–3313. doi:10.1107/S0567740876010182. ISSN 0567-7408.
^ Dodge, R. P.; Smith, G. S.; Johnson, Q.; Elson, R. E. (1967). "The crystal structure of protactinium pentachloride". Acta Crystallographica. 22 (1): 85–89. doi:10.1107/S0365110X67000155. ISSN 0365-110X.
^ Stein, Lawrence (1964). "Protactinium Fluorides". Inorganic Chemistry. 3 (7): 995–998. doi:10.1021/ic50017a016. ISSN 0020-1669.

[1] Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth–Heinemann. pp. 1270, 1271. ISBN 978-0080379418.

[2] Taylor, J.C. (1976). "Systematic features in the structural chemistry of the uranium halides, oxyhalides and related transition metal and lanthanide halides". Coordination Chemistry Reviews. 20 (3): 206, 213, 214. doi:10.1016/S0010-8545(00)80325-2.

[3] Ryan, R. R.; Penneman, R. A.; Asprey, L. B.; Paine, R. T. (1976-12-01). "Single-crystal X-ray study of β-uranium pentafluoride. The eight coordination of U V". Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry. 32 (12): 3311–3313. doi:10.1107/S0567740876010182. ISSN 0567-7408.

[4] Dodge, R. P.; Smith, G. S.; Johnson, Q.; Elson, R. E. (1967). "The crystal structure of protactinium pentachloride". Acta Crystallographica. 22 (1): 85–89. doi:10.1107/S0365110X67000155. ISSN 0365-110X.

[5] Stein, Lawrence (1964). "Protactinium Fluorides". Inorganic Chemistry. 3 (7): 995–998. doi:10.1021/ic50017a016. ISSN 0020-1669.

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Discovery

Crystal structure of PaF5

Crystal structure of PaF₅