Flerovium (Fl)

• Element Symbol: Fl
• Atomic Number: 114
• Atomic Mass: [289]
• Group # in Periodic Table: 14
• Group Name: Disputed information
• Period in Periodic Table: 7
• Block of Periodic Table: p-block
• Discovered by: Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia (1998)

Flerovium is a superheavy, radioactive synthetic element in the periodic table. It is one of the transuranium elements, which are the elements with atomic numbers larger than 92. Before it was named, flerovium was known as element 114 and hypothesized to exist just below lead in group 14. Element 114 was also sometimes known as eka-lead. Eka means "one" in Sanskrit, so this name indicated the position of the element one space below lead.

Element 114 was hypothesized to be more stable than other superheavy elements. This hypothesis was based on the nuclear shell model, which predicted that an element with neutrons and protons that completely filled an energy level of one of its shells would have a longer half-life. In other words superheavy elements with filled shells were predicted to be islands of stability within a sea of extremely unstable elements. The island-of-stability prediction was first suggested by American physicist Glenn T. Seaborg.

Element 114 was first discovered in 1998 by scientists working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. In this lab, plutonium targets were bombarded with calcium-48 nuclei within a particle accelerator. This bombardment produced one atom of element 114 with a half-life of about thirty seconds. Later work in 1999 produced another few atoms of element 114. The element was given the temporary name "ununquadium," which was used until the results of the procedure could be verified and a permanent name was chosen by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). "Flerovium" comes from the Latin for "one, one, four," the number of the element.

The discovery of element 114 was not verified until additional work was done between 2002 and 2009 by the scientists in Dubna as well as by a team of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. In 2012 the IUPAC approved the name flerovium for element 114. The name honors Russian physicist Georgy N. Flerov and the laboratory where the element was first synthesized, the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The teams from both Dubna and Livermore were given credit for the discovery of this element.

Physical Properties

Flerovium is a highly radioactive metal that is hypothesized to be solid in its standard state at 298 kelvins (K). None of its other physical properties are known due to its extremely short half-life during the few times it has been created.

Chemical Properties

Most of flerovium’s chemical properties are unknown. Its main oxidation state is predicted to be +2 or 0. It has been shown to strongly bind together as a diatomic molecule, Fl₂.

Some research in 2014 indicated that flerovium was less reactive than other lighter elements but that it still maintained the reactivity expected of a metal. Due to its placement in group 14 in the periodic table, flerovium is hypothesized to have some chemical properties similar to lead.

Flerovium has five known isotopes, all of which are radioactive and extremely short lived. Their mass numbers range from 285 to 289. The shortest-lived isotope of flerovium has a half-life of 0.16 seconds. Its longest-lived isotope, flerovium-289, has a half-life of 2.1 seconds. Flerovium isotopes decay quickly to become isotopes of copernicium. The extremely short half-lives of all flerovium isotopes indicate that the island-of-stability idea may not be correct. This element has a predicted electron configuration of [Rn]5f¹⁴6d¹⁰7s²7p².

Applications

Flerovium is not found in nature and cannot be produced in quantities containing more than a few atoms. Therefore, this element has no practical applications.

Flerovium isotopes are produced by bombarding plutonium-242 or plutonium-244 targets with calcium-48 nuclei. This procedure can create the isotopes flerovium-287, flerovium-288, and flerovium-289. All three of these isotopes have long enough half-lives (between 0.48 seconds and 2.1 seconds) to conduct research on this element.

Flerovium is being produced and actively studied by researchers around the world. One group investigated the properties of flerovium by examining its ability to form a metallic bond with gold. This investigation did verify the existence of a metal-metal bond. Another research group had found earlier that flerovium interacts with platinum, gold, and silver, with the strongest interactions being between flerovium and platinum. These findings all indicate that flerovium is a metal. However, the bonds found between gold and flerovium were not as strong as the bonds between gold and other metals, such as lead and mercury. This finding supports the hypothesis that flerovium may be different from other metals and less reactive. Some of flerovium’s observed properties indicate some similarities to the noble gases. Some scientists have suggested a new category for superheavy elements with properties of both noble gases and metals.

Bibliography

"Flerovium." Periodic Table. Royal Soc. of Chemistry, 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

"Flerovium (Fl)." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 28 Sept. 2015..

Loss, Robert D., and John Corish. "Names and Symbols of the Elements with Atomic Numbers 114 and 116 (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)." Pure and Applied Chemistry 84.7 (2012): 1669–72. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

"Technical Data for Ununquadium." The Photographic Periodic Table of the Elements. Element Collection, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

Türler, Andreas, and Valeria Pershina. "Advances in the Production and Chemistry of the Heaviest Elements." Chemical Reviews 113.2 (2013): 1237–312. Print.

Yakushev, Alexander, et al. "Superheavy Element Flerovium (Element 114) Is a Volatile Metal." Inorganic Chemistry 53.3 (2014): 1624–29. Print.