Copernicium (Cn)

• Element Symbol: Cn
• Atomic Number: 112
• Atomic Mass: [285]
• Group # in Periodic Table: 12
• Group Name: Transition metals
• Period in Periodic Table: 7
• Block of Periodic Table: d-block
• Discovered by: Sigurd Hofmann et al. (1996)

Copernicium is a chemical element with symbol Cn. Its atomic number in the periodic table is 112. It is a radioactive synthetic element. Copernicium was discovered by the German physicist Sigurd Hofmann and Bulgarian researcher Victor Ninov at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. Their team produced this element using a 100-meter-long, heavy-ion accelerator in which zinc-70 nuclei were fired at a target made of lead-208. The atom of element 112 was stable for just a fraction of a second. Using precise analytical procedures, the scientists were able to identify the new element by measuring the alpha particles during the atom’s decay process.

Copernicium was known as ununbium. Copernicium was initially given the symbol Cp, but since that symbol had previously been assigned to the element lutetium, this designation was rejected. Although the element was created and identified on February 9, 1996, copernicium was officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) much later—that is, on February 19, 2010. This date was the 537th anniversary of the birth of the famous scientist and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

The GSI team had initially proposed the name copernicium in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus. It was Copernicus who had refuted the idea that the earth was the center of the universe. He inferred that the planets revolved around the sun. The scientists at the GSI facility who discovered six superheavy elements said that Copernicus had changed the fifteenth century worldview when he announced his theory. In the words of Hofmann, "In the search for superheavy elements, element 112 was a stepping-stone towards the islands of stability."

Physical Properties

Copernicium is known to be a solid at 20°C, and it is theorized to be a gas at standard temperature and pressure (STP). Its electronic configuration is [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d¹⁰7s². Because copernicium is such a short-lived element, many of its properties remain unknown. For example, its boiling and freezing points are both unknown. The element’s standard state—that is, its state at 298 kelvin (K)—as well as its electrical and thermal conductivity are also unknown. It is hard to oxidize copernicium, although it is predicted to have four oxidation states—0, 1, 2, and 4. Its predominant oxidation state is +4. It belongs to the d-block of elements, and it has a hexagonal, close-packed crystal structure. The density of copernicium is 23.7 grams per cubic centimeter.

Copernicium is likely to share some properties with zinc, cadmium, and mercury, three elements that also belong to Group 12 in the periodic table. The electronegativity of copernicium is not known. In 2006, it was observed that copernicium exhibits properties of a volatile metal; the behavior that it exhibited is typical of the behavior exhibited by members of the Group 12 elements in the periodic table. Copernicium is a noble metal because of its closed shell configuration. Its electron shell configuration is presumed to be 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 18, 2. Its atomic radius is expected to be around 147 picometers. Copernicium is 277 times heavier than hydrogen. According to the prediction of some researchers, copernicium could also display the properties of a noble gas element.

Chemical Properties

Only a few atoms of copernicium have been made from lead atoms and zinc ions, which are fused together in a linear accelerator to produce element 112. To produce copernicium-277, the lead atoms are bombarded for two weeks by the zinc ions that are traveling at a speed of 30,000 kilometers per second. Copernicium-277 has a half-life of 0.24 milliseconds, and this particular isotope was synthesized by German physicist Peter Armbruster and his team.

There are 112 protons, 173 neutrons, and 112 electrons in an atom of copernicium. The binary compounds of copernicium are halides, oxides, and hydrides. Each compound of copernicium is given a formal oxidation number. Various nuclear reactions have produced somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy-five atoms of copernicium.

There are no naturally occurring or stable isotopes of copernicium, although many radioactive isotopes have been synthesized in the laboratory. The element’s isotopes have been observed after the completion of both cold and hot fusion reactions. Most of the element’s isotopes decay through alpha decay, although some undergo immediate fission.

In 1996, the first isotope, copernicium-277, was synthesized. Due to its radioactive properties, copernicium-277 decays after a 0.24 milliseconds as a result of the emission of an alpha particle, a process that produces the daughter nucleus darmstadtium-273.

Copernicium is also a decay product of flerovium, livermorium, and ununoctium, three elements that are located higher up in the periodic table. By emitting an alpha particle, flerovium-289 decays to copernicium-285. Similarly, the decay sequence of livermorium-293 produces copernicium-285. The most stable known isotope of copernicium, copernicium-285, has a half-life of about 30 seconds. It decays into darmstadtium-281 through alpha decay.

The heavier isotopes of copernicium are more stable than the lighter ones. It is theorized that the heavy isotopes copernicium-291 and copernicium-293 have half-lives of around 1,200 years. It is presumed that they may have been produced in the r-process and might be detectable in cosmic rays.

It is difficult to obtain the oxidation of copernicium from its neutral state. It may form metal-metal bonds with copper, palladium, platinum, silver, and gold.

The IUPAC in 2015 announced the discoveries of four new chemical elements, ununtrium (element symbol: Uut; element number: 113), ununpentium (Uup; 115), ununseptium (Uus; 117), and ununoctium (Uuo; 118). Period 7 of the periodic table, the period that includes copernicium, is now complete.

Applications

Copernicium is not present in the geosphere because it is a synthetic element. Since it is also one of the newer elements in the periodic table, not much is known about its applications. At present, copernicium is used only for research purposes. Copernicium can be harmful due to its radioactivity, although its short life makes it harmful only in theory.

Bibliography

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"Copernicium (Cn)." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

"Copernicium: The Essentials." WebElements. The University of Sheffield, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

Hofmann, Sigurd. "Welcome Copernicium?" Nature Chemistry. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2.146 (210): n. pag. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

Keats, Jonathon. Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.