book

Nobelium

21 Pages 343 Words 1557 Views

Nobelium is a synthetic chemical element with a symbol “No” and an atomic number of 102. It is named after the famous chemist and engineer, Alfred Nobel, who is well-known for inventing the dynamite. Like any other elements with higher atomic number than 100, nobelium can only be produced in particle accelerators by forcefully bombarding lighter elements with charged particles. There are twelve nobelium isotopes that are known to exist and all of them are radioactive. The most stable isotope is the 259No with a half-life of 58 minutes. However, 255No, which has a half-life of 3.1 minutes, is most commonly used in usual chemistry experiments due to its higher abundance. The discovery of Nobelium was actually a complicated process and was claimed by groups from Sweden, the United Sates, and the former Soviet Union. The first complete and substantial report of its detection only came in 1966 from the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, located at Dubna, Russia. The first announcement of the discovery of this element was made by physicists of the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957. According to their reports, their processes were rather complicated. They bombarded a curium target with carbon-13 ions for 24hours in 30minutes intervals. In between each bombardments, ion-exchange chemistry was performed on the target. Through various trials and error, they eventually discovered this element and decided to name it “Nobelium”. In the periodic table, nobelium is located to the right of actinide mendelevium and to the left of actinide lawrencium. Nobelium metal has not yet been prepared in bulk quantities and bulk preparation is impossible currently. The actual research on the chemistry of nobelium is incomplete and nobelium is only known in aqueous solution. It can take +3 or +2 oxidation states, the latter being more stable. In general, very little is known about Nobelium and it has not much of a use to us in our daily lives. There is

Read Full Essay