Element

Meitnerium Element Properties and Information

Published August 18, 2022 · Updated August 28, 2022

Meitnerium Element Properties and Information

Meitnerium is 109^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. Meitnerium has an atomic number of 109. It is located in the Group 9 and Period 7 of the periodic table of elements and denoted by the symbol ‘Mt’. Meitnerium is named after Lise Meitner, who was one of the discoverers of nuclear fission.

Meitnerium was first made in 1982 at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), by a group headed by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg. They bombarded a target of bismuth with accelerated iron ions, after a week, a single atom of isotope-266 of element-109 was detected which underwent radioactive decay within 5 milliseconds. Meitnerium 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 meitnerium which have been characterized so far have been obtained synthetically.

Physical Properties

Meitnerium is a synthetic radioactive element which is extremely unstable.
The atomic mass of meitnerium is 265.9.
The melting point of meitnerium is unknown as of yet.
The boiling point of meitnerium is unknown as of yet.
The density of meitnerium is unknown as of yet.
Meitnerium is expected to be a solid under normal conditions.
Meitnerium is predicted to assume a face-centered cubic structure.
Meitnerium is predicted to be paramagnetic in nature.
The longest lived Meitnerium isotope has a half-life of 4.5 seconds.
Very short half-lives of all the meitnerium isotopes pose great challenge in the prediction of its properties.

Chemical Properties

Most stable oxidation states of meitnerium are expected to be +6, +3, and +1.
Meitnerium compounds in aqueous solution are predicted to be most stable in the oxidation state of +3.
Meitnerium is the first element on the periodic table whose chemistry has not been investigated yet.

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. Bismuth-209 bombarded with ferrous-58 yields meitnerium-266.