Fl

Flerovium
114

Discovery date 1999

Discovered by

Scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear

Research in Dubna, Russia and the Lawrence

Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA.

Origin of the name

Named after the Russian physicist Georgy Flerov who

founded the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research where

the element was discovered.

Uses and properties

Image explanation

The image features an abstracted form inspired by the

colonnade of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR),

where the element was discovered. The two main colours

represent the creation of the element from calcium and

plutonium. The background features abstracted particle

trails and sections from the ground plan of the accelerator

at JINR.
Appearance

A highly radioactive metal, of which only a

few atoms have ever been made.

Uses

At present, it is only used in research.

Biological role

It has no known biological role.

Natural abundance

Flerovium can be formed in nuclear reactors.

History

There are four known isotopes of flerovium with mass numbers 286-289.

The longest-lived is 289 and it has a half-life of 2.6 seconds. Nuclear theory

suggests that isotope 298, with 184 neutrons, should be much more stable

but that has yet to be made.

Despite several attempts to make element 114, it was only in 1998 that a

team led by Yuri Oganessian and Vladimir Utyonkov at the Joint Institute

for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Russia produced it by bombarding plutonium

with calcium. It needed 5 billion billion (5 x 1018) atoms of calcium to be fired

at the target to produce a single atom of flerovium, in an experiment lasting

40 days. A few more two atoms were produced the following year.
Properties of flerovium

Flerovium is a radioactive, synthetic element about which little is

known. It is classified as a metal and is expected to be solid at room

temperature. Flerovium is suggested to be part of the theorized island

of stability. Predicted to occur around Element 114, the island of stability

is where protons and neutrons would combine to make a stable structure.

Flerovium has five isotopes with known half-lives. The atomic weight for

manmade transuranium elements is based on the longest-lived isotope.

These atomic weights should be considered provisional since a new isotope

with a longer half-life could be produced in the future.

Sources of flerovium

To make flerovium, atoms of plutonium (Element 94) are

bombarded with ions of calcium (Element 20) contained in a beam.

Uses of flerovium

Only a few atoms of flerovium have ever been made,

and they are only used in scientific study.

Sources

Live Science

https://www.livescience.com/41420-facts-about-flerovium.html

Periodic Table

http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/114/flerovium