Atomic number 94
Plutonium
Actinide
No photo: here’s why
Plutonium has been made by the ton for reactors and spacecraft power, and even photographed - but it is intensely radioactive and locked inside shielded facilities. You will never meet it.
Quick facts
- Atomic mass
- 244.00
- Group
- –
- Period
- 7
- State (STP)
- solid
- Electronegativity
- 1.28
- Common ox. states
- +3, +4, +5, +6
Properties
[Rn] 5f⁶ 7s²
- Ionization energy
- 584.7 kJ/mol
- Electron affinity
- –
- Melting point
- 913.00 K (639.9 °C)
- Boiling point
- 3501.00 K (3227.8 °C)
How dangerous is it?
A man-made metal that is intensely radioactive. It exists only in specialized labs and reactors, never anywhere you would be.
- RadioactiveImmediate and cumulative
It steadily emits radiation that damages cells, and it stays dangerous for thousands of years. (synthetic; not found in nature in any real amount)
Sealed in shielded containers and handled remotely inside licensed nuclear facilities.
How it bonds· family overview
Plutonium (Pu) is an actinide. Like the lanthanides it tends toward a +3 oxidation state, but the early actinides (Th–Am) routinely access +4, +5, +6, even +7 because the 5f electrons are easier to ionize. Most actinides are radioactive; their "bonding" in school is read off the periodic table, not measured in lab.
