# Talk:Protactinium

Pubchem states that " IUPAC who officially named it protactinium and confirmed Hahn and Meitner as co-discoverers". The infobox and text says different. What to do? (and: what means 'co-discoverers': the two together or 'co' with Fajan and Gohring?). -DePiep (talk) 19:41, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

@DePiep: With these radioelements there tends to be a conflation between discovering the isotope and the element. In the past the most stable isotope gave the element its name, thus causing the confusion. Hahn and Meitner were the first to discover 231Pa; in the past, "protactinium" also meant this isotope as well as the element. But Fajans and Göhring had discovered 234Pa years before.
A similar confusion goes on with radon. The most stable isotope, 222Rn, was discovered in 1900 by Dorn. The fact that Rutherford and Owens had already discovered 220Rn the previous year is generally overlooked. Double sharp (talk) 08:37, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

Greenwood&Earnshaw mentions PaF5 and β-UF5 are 7-coordinated, which comes from this citation they cited. This is outdated, as the crystal structure of β-UF5 was revised around the same time, it is actually 8-coordinated. However I'm not sure could we write "PaF5 is 8-coordinated" into the article, as they have the same structure.
"PaF5 is monoclinic" part comes out from nowhere, only PaCl5 is monoclinic, and Greenwood&Earnshaw does not mention these compounds crystal structure. PaF5 is actually tetragonal, just like β-UF5. --Nucleus hydro elemon (talk) 07:29, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

Specifically,
“Sample of a protactinium-231 in a glass vial.” 112.208.190.12 (talk) 09:04, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

Fixed; thanks for noticing this. Complex/Rational 13:22, 1 October 2025 (UTC)