Thallium has several oxides:
Thallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. It is a gray post-transition metal that is not found free in nature. When isolated, thallium 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 θαλλός, thallós, meaning "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.
The boron group are the chemical elements in group 13 of the periodic table, comprising boron (B), aluminium (Al), gallium (Ga), indium (In), thallium (Tl), and perhaps also the chemically uncharacterized nihonium (Nh). The elements in the boron group are characterized by having three valence electrons. These elements have also been referred to as the triels.
The inert-pair effect is the tendency of the two electrons in the outermost atomic s-orbital to remain unshared in compounds of post-transition metals. The term inert-pair effect is often used in relation to the increasing stability of oxidation states that are two less than the group valency for the heavier elements of groups 13, 14, 15 and 16. The term "inert pair" was first proposed by Nevil Sidgwick in 1927. The name suggests that the outermost s electrons are more tightly bound to the nucleus in these atoms, and therefore more difficult to ionize or share.
A trioxide is a compound with three oxygen atoms. For metals with the M2O3 formula there are several common structures. Al2O3, Cr2O3, Fe2O3, and V2O3 adopt the corundum structure. Many rare earth oxides adopt the "A-type rare earth structure" which is hexagonal. Several others plus indium oxide adopt the "C-type rare earth structure", also called "bixbyite", which is cubic and related to the fluorite structure.
Thallium(I) hydroxide, also called thallous hydroxide, TlOH, is a hydroxide of thallium, with thallium in oxidation state +1.
Thallium(I) sulfate (Tl2SO4) or thallous sulfate is the sulfate salt of thallium in the common +1 oxidation state, as indicated by the Roman numeral I. It is often referred to as simply thallium sulfate.
Basic oxides are oxides that show basic properties in opposition to acidic oxides and that either
Thallium(I) oxide is the inorganic compound of thallium and oxygen with the formula Tl2O in which thallium is in its +1 oxidation state. It is black and produces a basic yellow solution of thallium(I) hydroxide (TlOH) when dissolved in water. It is formed by heating solid TlOH or Tl2CO3 in the absence of air. Thallium oxide is used to make special high refractive index glass. Thallium oxide is a component of several high temperature superconductors. Thallium(I) oxide reacts with acids to make thallium(I) salts.
Thallium(I) chloride, also known as thallous chloride, is a chemical compound with the formula TlCl. This colourless salt is an intermediate in the isolation of thallium from its ores. Typically, an acidic solution of thallium(I) sulfate is treated with hydrochloric acid to precipitate insoluble thallium(I) chloride. This solid crystallizes in the caesium chloride motif.
Thallium(I) iodide is a chemical compound with the formula TlI. It is unusual in being one of the few water-insoluble metal iodides, along with AgI, CuI, SnI2, SnI4, PbI2 and HgI2.
Thallium(III) oxide, also known as thallic oxide, is a chemical compound of thallium and oxygen. It occurs in nature as the rare mineral avicennite. Its structure is related to that of Mn2O3 which has a bixbyite like structure. Tl2O3 is metallic with high conductivity and is a degenerate n-type semiconductor which may have potential use in solar cells. A method of producing Tl2O3 by MOCVD is known. Any practical use of thallium(III) oxide will always have to take account of thallium's poisonous nature. Contact with moisture and acids may form poisonous thallium compounds.
The thallium halides include monohalides, where thallium has oxidation state +1, trihalides in which thallium generally has oxidation state +3, and some intermediate halides containing thallium with mixed +1 and +3 oxidation states. These materials find use in specialized optical settings, such as focusing elements in research spectrophotometers. Compared to the more common zinc selenide-based optics, materials such as thallium bromoiodide enable transmission at longer wavelengths. In the infrared, this allows for measurements as low as 350 cm−1 (28 μm), whereas zinc selenide is opaque by 21.5 μm, and ZnSe optics are generally only usable to 650 cm−1 (15 μm).
Thallium(I) sulfide, Tl2S, is a chemical compound of thallium and sulfur. It was used in some of the earliest photo-electric detectors by Theodore Case who developed the so-called thalofide (sometimes spelt thallofide) cell, used in early film projectors. Case described the detector material as consisting of thallium, oxygen and sulfur, and this was incorrectly described by others as being thallium oxysulfide, which incidentally is a compound that is not known. Case's work was then built on by R.J. Cashman who recognised that the controlled oxidation of the Tl2S film was key to the operation of the cell. Cashman's work culminated in the development of long wave infrared detectors used during the Second World War. Reliable Tl2S detectors were also developed in Germany at the same time.
Tl2S is found in nature as the mineral carlinite which has the distinction of being the only sulfide mineral of thallium that does not contain at least two metals. Tl2S has a distorted anti-CdI2 structure.
Tl2S can be prepared from the elements or by precipitating the sulfide from a solution of thallium(I), e.g. the sulfate or nitrate. Thin films have been deposited, produced from a mixture of citratothallium complex and thiourea. Heating the film in nitrogen at 300°C converts all the product into Tl2S
Thallium triiodide is a chemical compound of thallium and iodine with formula TlI3. Unlike the other thallium trihalides, which contain thallium(III), TlI3 is a thallium(I) salt and contains the triiodide ion, I3−.
Thallium barium calcium copper oxide, or TBCCO (pronounced "tibco"), is a family of high-temperature superconductors having the generalized chemical formula TlmBa2Can−1CunO2n+m+2.
Thallium(I) fluoride (or thallous fluoride or thallium monofluoride) is the chemical compound composed of thallium and fluorine with the formula TlF. It consists of hard white orthorhombic crystals which are slightly deliquescent in humid air but revert to the anhydrous form in dry air. It has a distorted sodium chloride (rock salt) crystal structure, due to the 6s2 inert pair on Tl+.
Organogallium chemistry is the chemistry of organometallic compounds containing a carbon to gallium (Ga) chemical bond. Despite their high toxicity, organogallium compounds have some use in organic synthesis. The compound trimethylgallium is of some relevance to MOCVD as a precursor to gallium arsenide via its reaction with arsine at 700 °C:
The metallic elements in the periodic table located between the transition metals and the weakly nonmetallic metalloids have received many names in the literature, such as post-transition metals, poor metals, other metals, p-block metals and chemically weak metals; none have been recommended by IUPAC. The most common name, post-transition metals, is generally used in this article. Depending on where the adjacent sets of transition metals and metalloids are judged to begin and end, there are at least five competing proposals for which elements to count as post-transition metals: the three most common contain six, ten and thirteen elements, respectively. All proposals include gallium, indium, tin, thallium, lead, and bismuth.
Chrysothallite is a rare thallium-bearing chloride mineral with the formula K6Cu6Tl3+Cl17(OH)4•H2O. Chrysothallite is unique in being only the second mineral with essential trivalent thallium, a feature shared with natural thallium(III) oxide, avicennite. Another examples of natural thallium chlorides are steropesite, Tl3BiCl6, and lafossaite, TlCl. Chrysothallite is one of numerous fumarolic minerals discovered among fumarolic sites of the Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia The mineral is named in allusion to its colour and thallium content.