Bohrium

Bohrium: the essentials

 Brief description: bohrium is a synthetic element that is not present in the environment at all. The German discoverers at GSI proposed the name Nielsbohrium (symbol Ns) after Niels Bohr. IUPAC are happy to name an element after Bohr but suggest bohrium (Bh) on the grounds that the first name of a person does not appear in the names of any other element named after a person. This seems to have been accepted by all concerned.

The interested reader should consult the on-line version of The Wonderful World of Atoms and Nuclei for a fascinating insight into research on "super-heavy" atoms.

Isolation

Isolation: only a few atoms of element 107, bohrium, have ever been made. The first atoms were made through a nuclear reaction involving fusion of an isotope of lead, ²⁰⁹Pb, with one of chromium, ⁵⁴Cr.

²⁰⁹Pb + ⁵⁴Cr → ²⁶²Bh + ¹n

Isolation of an observable quantity of bohrium has never been achieved, and may well never be. This is because bohrium decays very rapidly through the emission of α-particles.

More recently, other isotopes have been made at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland.

²⁴⁹Bk + ²²Ne → ²⁶⁶Bh + 5¹n

²⁴⁹Bk + ²²Ne → ²⁶⁷Bh + 4¹n

In this work, it appears the scientists concerned feel bohrium forms the oxychloride BhClO₃.

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