Darmstadtium

Darmstadtium: the essentials

 Brief description: element 110, darmstadtium, is a synthetic element that is not present in the environment at all. Further information on element 110 is here (outside WebElements) and in a press release (outside WebElements). 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.

Chemically, darmstadtium is in the same Group as nickel, palladium, and platinum (Group 10). Unlike these lighter atoms, darmstadtium decays after a small fraction of a thousandth of a second into lighter elements by emitting α-particles which are the nuclei of helium atoms.

Isolation

Isolation: only a few atoms of darmstadtium have ever been made, initially through a nuclear reaction involving fusion of an isotope of lead, Pb, with one of nickel, Ni.

²⁰⁸Pb + ⁶²Ni → ²⁶⁹Ds + ¹n

Isolation of an observable quantity has never been achieved, and may well never be. This is because atoms of the element decompose through the emission of α-particles with a half life of only about 270 microseconds. Another isotope was made by using a different isotope of nickel.

²⁰⁸Pb + ⁶⁴Ni → ²⁷¹Ds + ¹n

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