Human Metabolome Database Version 3.5

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Showing metabocard for Thallium (HMDB13724)

Blood
Urine

Record Information

Version

3.5

Creation Date

2012-05-18 08:04:05 -0600

Update Date

2013-02-08 17:30:50 -0700

HMDB ID

HMDB13724

Secondary Accession Numbers

None

Metabolite Identification

Common Name

Thallium

Description

A mercury-thallium alloy, which forms a eutectic at 8.5% thallium, is reported to freeze at -60 C, some 20 °C below the freezing point of mercury. This alloy is used in thermometers and low-temperature switches. In organic synthesis thallium(III) salts, as thallium trinitrate or triacetate, are useful reagents performing different transformations in aromatics, ketones, olefins, among others. Thallium is a constituent of the alloy in the anode plates in magnesium seawater batteries. Soluble thallium salts are added to gold plating baths to increase the speed of plating and to reduce grain size within the gold layer. A thallium stress test is a form of scintigraphy, where the amount of thallium in tissues correlates with tissue blood supply. Viable cardiac cells have normal Na+/K+ ion exchange pumps. The Tl+ cation binds the K+ pumps and is transported into the cells. Exercise or dipyridamole induces widening (vasodilation) of normal coronary arteries. This produces coronary steal from areas where arteries are maximally dilated. Areas of infarct or ischemic tissue will remain "cold". Pre- and post-stress thallium may indicate areas which will benefit from myocardial revascularization. Redistribution indicates the existence of coronary steal and the presence of ischemic coronary artery disease. Although thallium is a modestly abundant element in the Earth's crust, with a concentration estimated to be about 0.7 mg/kg, mostly in association with potassium-based minerals in clays, soils, and granites, thallium is not generally economically recoverable from these sources. The major source of thallium for practical purposes is the trace amount that is found in copper, lead, zinc, and other heavy-metal-sulfide ores. One of the main methods of removing thallium (both radioactive and normal) from humans is to use Prussian blue, which is a material which absorbs thallium. Up to 20 g per day of Prussian blue is fed by mouth to the person, and it passes through their digestive system and comes out in the stool. Hemodialysis and hemoperfusion are also used to remove thallium from the blood serum. At later stage of the treatment additional potassium is used to mobilize thallium from the tissue. Thallium is a chemical element with the symbol Tl and atomic number 81. This soft gray poor metal resembles tin but discolors when exposed to air. Chemists William Crookes and Claude-Auguste Lamy discovered thallium independently in 1861 by the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy. Each discovered the new element in residues of sulfuric acid production. Thallium and its compounds are extremely toxic, and should be handled with great care. There are numerous recorded cases of fatal thallium poisoning. Contact with skin is dangerous, and adequate ventilation should be provided when melting this metal. Thallium(I) compounds have a high aqueous solubility and are readily absorbed through the skin. Exposure to them should not exceed 0.1 mg per m2 of skin in an 8-hour time-weighted average (40-hour work week). Thallium is a suspected human carcinogen. For a long time thallium compounds were easily available as rat poison. This fact and that it is water soluble and nearly tasteless led to frequent intoxications caused by accident or criminal intent. Thallium can also be obtained from the smelting of lead and zinc ores. Manganese nodules found on the ocean floor also contain some thallium, but the collection of these nodules has been and continues to be prohibitively expensive. There is also the potential for damaging the environment of the oceans. In addition, several other thallium minerals, containing 16% to 60% thallium, occur in nature as complexes of sulfides or selenides that primarily contain antimony, arsenic, copper, lead, and/or silver. However, these minerals are rare, and they have had no commercial importance as sources of thallium. The Allchar deposit in southern Macedonia was the only area where thallium was ever actively mined. This deposit still contains a loosely estimated 500 tonnes of thallium, and it is a source for several rare thallium minerals, for example lorandite. The compounds with oxidation state +3 resemble the corresponding aluminium(III) compounds. They are moderately strong oxidizing agents, as illustrated by the reduction potential of +0.72 volts for Tl3+. The thallium(III) oxide is a black solid which decomposes above 800 °C, forming the thallium(I) oxide and oxygen. The saturated solution of equal parts of thallium(I) formate (Tl(CHO2)) and thallium(I) malonate (Tl(C3H3O4)) in water is known as Clerici solution. It is a mobile odorless liquid whose color changes from yellowish to clear upon reducing the concentration of the thallium salts. With the density of 4.25 g/cm3 at 20 °C, Clerici solution is one of the heaviest aqueous solutions known. It was used in the 20th century for measuring density of minerals by the flotation method, but the use is discontinued due to the high toxicity and corrosiveness of the solution. The two main oxidation states of thallium are +1 and +3. In the oxidation state +1 most compounds closely resemble the corresponding potassium or silver compounds (the ionic radius of thallium(I) is 1.47 while that of potassium is 1.33 and that of silver is 1.26),[citation needed] which was the reason why thallium was sometimes considered to be an alkali metal in Europe (but not in England) in the years immediately following its discovery.:126 For example, the water-soluble and very basic thallium(I) hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide forming water-soluble thallium carbonate This carbonate is the only water soluble heavy metal carbonate.[citation needed] The similarity with silver compounds is observed with the halide, oxide, and sulfide compounds. Thallium(I) bromide is a photosensitive yellow compound very similar to the silver bromide, while the black thallium(I) oxide and thallium(I) sulfide are very similar to the silver oxide and silver sulfide.[citation needed]

Structure

Download: MOL | SDF | SMILES | InChI
Display: 2D Structure | 3D Structure

Synonyms

81Tl
Talio
Thallium
Thallium chloride
Thallous chloride
Thallous chloride Tl 201
Tl

Chemical Formula

ClTl

Average Molecular Weight

239.836

Monoisotopic Molecular Weight

239.943264977

IUPAC Name

$l^{1}-thallanylium chloride

Traditional IUPAC Name

thallium(1+) chloride

CAS Registry Number

7440-28-0

SMILES

[Cl-].[Tl+]

InChI Identifier

InChI=1S/ClH.Tl/h1H;/q;+1/p-1

InChI Key

GBECUEIQVRDUKB-UHFFFAOYSA-M

Chemical Taxonomy

Kingdom

Inorganic Compounds

Super Class

Mixed Metal/Non-metal Compounds

Class

Post-transition Metal Salts

Sub Class

Post-transition Metal Chlorides

Other Descriptors

inorganic chloride salt(ChEBI)
thallium molecular entity(ChEBI)

Substituents

Direct Parent

Post-transition Metal Chlorides

Ontology

Status

Detected and Quantified

Origin

Endogenous

Biofunction

Not Available

Application

Not Available

Cellular locations

Not Available

Physical Properties

State

Solid

Experimental Properties

Property	Value	Reference
Melting Point	303.5 °C	Not Available
Boiling Point	Not Available	Not Available
Water Solubility	Not Available	Not Available
LogP	Not Available	Not Available

Predicted Properties

Property	Value	Source
Water Solubility		ALOGPS
LogP	0.03	ChemAxon
pKa (strongest acidic)	-7	ChemAxon
Hydrogen Acceptor Count	0	ChemAxon
Hydrogen Donor Count	0	ChemAxon
Polar Surface Area	0 A²	ChemAxon
Rotatable Bond Count	0	ChemAxon
Refractivity	0	ChemAxon
Polarizability	1.78	ChemAxon
Formal Charge	0	ChemAxon
Physiological Charge	-1	ChemAxon

Spectra

Not Available

Biological Properties

Cellular Locations

Not Available

Biofluid Locations

Blood
Urine

Tissue Location

Not Available

Pathways

Not Available

Normal Concentrations

Biofluid	Status	Value	Age	Sex	Condition	Comments
Blood	Expected and not Quantified	Not Applicable	Not Available	Not Available	Normal	Inferred from detection in urine
Urine	Detected and Quantified	0.111(0.029-0.333) umol/mmol creatinine	Adult (>18 years old)	Both	Normal	by ICP MS
Urine	Detected and Quantified	0.0003 (0.0001-0.0013) umol/mmol creatinine	Adult (>18 years old)	Both	Normal	by ICP MS
Urine	Detected and Quantified	0.0000942 umol/mmol creatinine	Adult (>18 years old)	Male	Normal	Not Available