Darmstadtium  

The essentials

Description   

Here is a brief description of darmstadtium.

• Standard state: presumably a solid at 298 K
• Colour: unknown, but probably metallic and silvery white or grey in appearance
• Classification: Metallic
• Availability: Not commercially available.

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 a-particles which are the nuclei of helium atoms.

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 a-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