Element

Darmstadtium Element Properties and Information

Published August 18, 2022 · Updated August 28, 2022

Darmstadtium Element Properties and Information

Darmstadtium is 110^th element on the periodic table. Elements are arranged in the periodic table on the basis of the atomic number. Atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. Darmstadtium has an atomic number of 110. It is located in the Group 10 and Period 7 of the periodic table of elements and denoted by the symbol ‘Dm’. Darmstadtium is named after the German city, Darmstadt, where it was made for the first time.

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) and the Geselleschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) undertook several attempts to prepare the element-110 but all turned out to be unsuccessful. Then the team led by Albert Ghiorso at the Lawrence Berkely Laboratory (LBL) claimed to create element-110 by bombarding bismuth with cobalt but they were not able to confirm their findings. Yuri Oganessian and Vladimir Utyonkov at the JINR made isotope-273 of the element-110 in 1994 by bombarding plutonium with sulfur. In the same year, Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Munzenberg at the GSI made isotope-269 of the element-110 by bombarding lead with nickel. The evidences of the GSI group were deemed more reliable than the JINR group hence they were allowed to name the element-110. They named it Darmstadtium. Darmstadtium does not occur naturally in Earth’s crust; it can only be prepared in a synthetic manner in particle accelerators. It cannot even be prepared in a nuclear reactor. All the isotopes of darmstadtium which have been characterized so far have been obtained synthetically.

Physical Properties

Darmstadtium is an extremely radioactive element which can only be prepared in a laboratory.
The atomic mass of darmstadtium is 261.9.
The melting point of darmstadtium is unknown as of yet.
The boiling point of darmstadtium is unknown as of yet.
The density of darmstadtium is unknown as of yet.
Darmstadtium is expected to be solid under normal conditions.
Darmstadtium is predicted to assume a body-centered cubic structure.
Apart from nuclear properties, no physical properties of darmstadtium have been studied so far owing to short half-lives of all its isotopes and also the expensive production.
The longest lived darmstadtium isotope has a half-life of 12.7 seconds.

Chemical Properties

Apart from nuclear properties, no chemical properties of darmstadtium have been studied so far owing to short half-lives of all its isotopes and also the expensive production.
Darmstadtium is expected to be a very noble metal.
No experimental measurement of darmstadtium compounds have been done so far, all available predictions are theoretical in nature.
The most stable oxidation states of darmstadtium are predicted to be +6, +4, and +2.
The unambiguous determination of the chemical characteristics darmstadtium is yet to be established.

Methods of Production

Particle Accelerators: All the elements which have atomic number greater than 100 can only be prepared through reactions in a particle accelerator such as a cyclotron; they are not formed in a nuclear reactor. Lead-208 bombarded with nickel-64 yields darmstadtium-271.