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Nuclear chemistry

Panning for ununbium

Nature volume 447, pages 47–49 (2007)Cite this article

The chemical identification of two atoms of element 112 — scooped from the helium stream they were suspended in using a gold pan — brings the superheavy elements' fabled island of stability into sharper focus.

Superheavy elements owe their existence solely to so-called nuclear-shell effects2: certain 'magic' combinations of many protons and neutrons arrange themselves so favourably that they can act against the disruptive forces of the protons' charges. Nuclei with these configurations are, unlike many heavy nuclei, fairly stable against spontaneous fission. The most stable nuclei might survive up to years — an effect comparable to the chemical inertness of the noble gases elsewhere in the periodic table. Such nuclei are thought to inhabit an 'island of stability' conjectured to lie on the horizon of the current periodic table.

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Figure 1

UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD/CORBIS

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  1. Andreas Türler is at the Institut für Radiochemie, Technische Universität München, Walther-Meissner-Straße 3, D-85748 Garching, Germany andreas.tuerler@radiochemie.de,

    Andreas Türler

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  1. Andreas Türler
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Türler, A. Panning for ununbium. Nature 447, 47–49 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/447047a

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