Crossword clues for thallium
thallium
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Thallium \Thal"li*um\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ? young or green shoot or branch, twig. So called from a characteristic bright green line in its spectrum.] (Chem.) A rare metallic element of the aluminium group found in some minerals, as certain pyrites, and also in the lead-chamber deposit in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. It is isolated as a heavy, soft, bluish white metal, easily oxidized in moist air, but preserved by keeping under water. Symbol Tl. Atomic weight 203.7.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
rare metallic element, 1861, Modern Latin, from Greek thallos "young shoot, green branch" (see thallus) + element name ending -ium. So called by its discoverer, Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), from the green line in its spectrum by which he detected it. Related: Thallic.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A metallic chemical element (''symbol'' Tl) with atomic number 81. 2 A single atom of this element.
WordNet
n. a soft gray malleable metallic element that resembles tin but discolors on exposure to air; it is highly toxic and is used in rodent and insect poisons; occurs in zinc blende and some iron ores [syn: Tl, atomic number 81]
Wikipedia
Thallium is a chemical element with symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray post-transition metal is not found free in nature. When isolated, it resembles tin, but discolors when exposed to air. Chemists William Crookes and Claude-Auguste Lamy discovered thallium independently in 1861, in residues of sulfuric acid production. Both used the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy, in which thallium produces a notable green spectral line. Thallium, from Greek , , meaning "a green shoot or twig," was named by Crookes. It was isolated by both Lamy and Crookes in 1862; Lamy by electrolysis and Crookes by precipitation and melting of the resultant powder. Crookes exhibited it as a powder precipitated by Zinc at the International exhibition which opened on 1 May, that year.
Thallium tends to oxidize to the +3 and +1 oxidation states as ionic salts. The +3 state resembles that of the other elements in group 13 ( boron, aluminium, gallium, indium). However, the +1 state, which is far more prominent in thallium than the elements above it, recalls the chemistry of alkali metals, and thallium(I) ions are found geologically mostly in potassium-based ores, and (when ingested) are handled in many ways like potassium ions (K) by ion pumps in living cells.
Commercially, however, thallium is produced not from potassium ores, but as a byproduct from refining of heavy metal sulfide ores. Approximately 60–70% of thallium production is used in the electronics industry, and the remainder is used in the pharmaceutical industry and in glass manufacturing. It is also used in infrared detectors. The radioisotope thallium-201 (as the soluble chloride TlCl) is used in small, nontoxic amounts as an agent in a nuclear medicine scan, during one type of nuclear cardiac stress test.
Soluble thallium salts (many of which are nearly tasteless) are highly toxic in quantity, and were historically used in rat poisons and insecticides. Use of these compounds has been restricted or banned in many countries, because of their nonselective toxicity. Notably, thallium poisoning results in hair loss. Because of its historic popularity as a murder weapon, thallium has gained notoriety as "the poisoner's poison" and "inheritance powder" (alongside arsenic).
Usage examples of "thallium".
Hair loss, lethargy, tingling of the hands and feet, slurred speech It was thallium poisoning.
She put thallium in the milk when the tea-tray was sent in to Miss Able, knowing Withers and Sonia Orrincourt were there and knowing Sonia was the only one who took milk.
His cargo pod was jammed with tree-of-life roots and seeds, and bags of thallium oxide.
Vorst anywhere, that you rigged the whole thing, that there was a bullet or a knife or a glass of thallium waiting for me at the end of it.
He confirmed that it was almost certainly thallium poisoning, wrote out a programme of treatment and telephoned himself to one of the Assistant Commissioners at Scotland Yard.
Called thallium because it has a brilliant green stripe in its spectrum.
In 1861 the English chemist and physicist William Crookes discovered thallium, a heavy metal, in a sample of clay.
But, I do know that thallium is a delayed action poison for which there is no antidote.
She poisoned her mother with thallium and recorded in her diary every painful symptom her mother suffered.
The markings and keys on all the component parts painted in radioactive thallium gave the correct orientation to the machines assembling them precisely and at high speed.
I once watched Jerry Fabin staggering around and falling down, shitting all over himself, not knowing where he was, trying to get me to look up and research what poison he'd got hold of, thallium sulfate most likely .