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History and Production
Named after Thule, the ancient name for Scandinavia. Discovered in 1879 by P.T. Cleve. It is obtained commercially from monazite, a mixture of rare earth phosphates containing about 0.007% of thullium. Ion-exchange and solvent extraction techniques are used to isolate the salts while the metal is obtained by reduction of the oxide with lanthanum metal. At present time, there is only very few commercial use of the element. It has a potential use
in making ceramic magnetic materials in microwave equipment.
Physical Data
It is silver-gray in color, malleable and ductile. It is soft enough to cut by a knife. It is the least abundant element among the lanthanides, about 0.5 ppm of the earth crust and often associate with other rare earth elements.
Interatomic distance: 344.8 pm
Melting point: 1545°C
Boiling point: 1950°C
Thermal conductivity/Wm-1K-1: 16.8 (27°C)
Density/kgm-3: 9321 (25°C)
Standard Thermodynamic Data (atomic gas)
Enthalpy of formation: 232.2 kJ/mol
Gibbs free energy of formation: 197.5 kJ/mol
Entropy: 190.1 J/mol K
Heat capacity: 20.8 J/mol K
Electronic data
Electronic configuration: [Xe] 4f13 6s2
Term symbol: 2F7/2
Electron affinity: - Electronegativity (Pauline): 1.25
Ionization energy (first, second, third): 596.696, 1162.65, 2284.77 kJ/mol
Chemical properties
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