Element

Roentgenium Element Properties and Information

Published August 17, 2022 · Updated August 28, 2022

Roentgenium Element Properties and Information

Roentgenium is 111^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. Roentgenium has an atomic number of 111. It is located in the Group 11 and Period 7 of the periodic table of elements and denoted by the symbol ‘Rg’. Roentgenium is named after the physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, he is the discoverer of X-rays.

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) attempted to make the element-111 by bombarding bismuth with nickel but they failed to detect any atoms of element-111. In 1994, a team led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfred Munzenberg at the Geselleschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), were successful in creating few atoms of isotope-272 of the element-111 after they bombarded bismuth with nickel; the isotope had a half-life of 1.5 milliseconds. The name ‘Roentgenium’ was suggested by GSI and it was accepted as the permanent name for element-111 in 2004. Roentgenium 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 roentgenium which have been characterized so far have been obtained synthetically.

Physical Properties

Roentgenium is a synthetic radioactive element whose isotopes have extremely short half-life times.
The atomic mass of roentgenium is 271.8.
The melting point of roentgenium is unknown as of yet.
The boiling point of roentgenium is unknown as of yet.
The density of roentgenium is unknown as of yet.
Apart from nuclear properties, no physical properties of roentgenium have been studied so far owing to short half-lives of all its isotopes and also the expensive production.
Roentgenium is expected to be a solid under normal conditions.
Roentgenium is predicted to assume a body-centered cubic structure.
Roentgenium is expected to display a silvery appearance.
The most stable compound of roentgenium, roentgenium-282, has a half-life of about 100 seconds.

Chemical Properties

Apart from nuclear properties, no chemical properties of roentgenium have been studied so far owing to short half-lives of all its isotopes and also the expensive production.
No experimental measurement of darmstadtium compounds have been done so far, all available predictions are theoretical in nature.
Roentgenium compounds are expected to display a stable state of +3.
Roentgenium compounds are also expected to display a less stable state of +5 and a lesser stable state of +1.
Roentgenium(III) compounds are expected to display chemical reactivity similar to gold(III) but are predicted to be relatively more stable and form more compounds.
The unambiguous determination of the chemical characteristics of roentgenium 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. Bismuth-209 bombarded with nickel-64 yields roentgenium-272.