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actinide series, a series of radioactive metallic elements in group IIIb of the periodic table. Members of the series are often called actinides, although actinium (at. no. 89) is not always considered a member of the series. The series always includes the 14 elements with atomic numbers 90 through 103. The other members are (in order of increasing atomic number) thorium, protactinium, uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and lawrencium. Thorium and uranium are the only actinides found in the earth's crust in appreciable quantities, although small amounts of neptunium and plutonium have been found in uranium ores. Actinium and protactinium are found in nature as decay products of some thorium and uranium isotopes. All the others have only been synthesized in small quantities (see synthetic elements).
Study of the properties of the actinides is hampered by their radioactive instability. It is known, however, that all members of the series resemble actinium and each other in their chemical properties and that they have a strong chemical resemblance to their homologs in the lanthanide series. The actinides are reactive and assume a number of different valences in their compounds. As the atomic number increases in this series, added electrons enter the 5f electron orbital. Elements in this series with atomic numbers greater than that of uranium (92) are called transuranium elements. Elements with atomic numbers greater than 103 are not members of the actinide series; element 104 (rutherfordium) is the first of the transactinide elements.
See A. J. Freeman and G. H. Lander, ed., Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of the Actinides (1984); S. Cotton, Lanthanides and Actinides (1991).
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