Encyclopedia > Transuranium element

  Article Content

Transuranium element

Transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 92, the atomic number of Uranium.

Of the elements with atomic numbers 1 to 92, all but four (43-technetium, 61-promethium, 85-astatine, and 87-francium) occur in nature.

All of the elements with higher atomic numbers, however, have had to be produced artificially. They are all radioactive, with a half-life much shorter than the age of the Earth, so any atoms of these elements, if they ever were present at the earth's formation, have long since vanished.

Those that can be found on earth now are artificially generated, via nuclear reactors or particle accelerators (Exception: Pu-239 is permanently generated in atomic quantities by neutrons from spontaneous fission[?] in uranium ore with two subsequent beta decays (U-238 > U-239 > Np-239 > Pu-239)).

Transuranic elements that have not been discovered, or have been discovered but are not yet officially named, use IUPAC's systematic element names. The naming of transuranic elements is a source of controversy.


The majority of the transuranium elements were produced by two groups:

Two other groups had worked on the preparation of transuranium elements, but their original reports have since been discredited:

  • A group at the Nobel Institute in Sweden, which claimed to have produced element 102, and named it nobelium, in honor of Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and donor of the endowment for the Nobel Prizes. The name "nobelium" was ultimately agreed upon, though their production is no longer accepted.
  • A group at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna in Russia (then the Soviet Union) who claimed to have produced:
    • 104, which they named kurchatovium after the Soviet chemist Ivan Kurchatov.
    • 105. Although their claim is not accepted, the name dubnium is now official for this element, named for the city where they worked. They originally proposed nielsbohrium for this.
    • 106.
    • 107.


List of the transuranic elements:

93 Neptunium Np
94 Plutonium Pu
95 Americium Am
96 Curium Cm
97 Berkelium Bk
98 Californium Cf
99 Einsteinium Es
100 Fermium Fm
101 Mendelevium Md
102 Nobelium No
103 Lawrencium Lr
104 Rutherfordium Rf
105 Dubnium Db
107 Bohrium Bh
108 Hassium Hs
109 Meitnerium Mt
110 Darmstadtium Ds
111 Unununium Uuu
112 Ununbium Uub
113 Ununtrium Uut
114 Ununquadium Uuq
115 Ununpentium Uup
116 Ununhexium Uuh
117 Ununseptium Uus
118 Ununoctium Uuo
119 Ununennium Uue
120 Unbinilium Ubn



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
U.S. presidential election, 1804

... Contents U.S. presidential election, 1804 Presidential CandidateElectoral Vote Party Running Mate(Electoral Votes) Thomas Jefferson ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 52.9 ms