Seaborgium element chemistry

Chemistry has finally reached and is presently focusing on element 114. In addition, a new field of superheavy element chemistry has opened up entirely new perspectives—chemical studies after preseparation with gas-filled recoil separators. This includes metal-organic chemistry of superheavy elements and, potentially, aqueous phase chemistry beyond seaborgium. While advancements in fully-relativistic theoretical chemistry facilitate a much deeper understanding of experimental results, at the same time, experiments also challenge theory. 

To glean information of this sort, chemists have had to refine their techniques of analysis to deal with samples of almost vanishing proportions. The researchers working on seaborgium found their results by conducting chemical reactions on just seven atoms in the short time before they decayed. The Berkeley team and others are now hard at work looking at the chemistry of elements 107 and above. 

Kratz, J.V. Chemistry of Seaborgium and Prospects for Chemical Studies of Bohrium and Hassium . In Proceedings of The Robert A. Welch Foundation Conference on Chemical Research XXXXI The Transactinide Elements , Houston, Texas,... 

Tiirler, A. Gas Phase Chemistry of the Transactinide Elements Rutherfordium, Dubnium, and Seaborgium , in Habilitation Thesis, Bern University (1999). 

The ARCA n that has been successful in studying chemical properties of element 105 (Kratz 1999 Kratz et al. 1989 Paulus et al. 1999 Zimmermann et al. 1993), and recently also of element 104 (Gtlnther et al. 1998 Strub et al. 2000) in aqueous solutions, was foreseen to also perform the first aqueous chemistry with element 106, seaborgium. 

Dr. Hoffman worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 31 years where she was part of the team that discovered plutonium-244 in nature, discovered element 100 (fermium), and confirmed the discovery of element 106 (which is named seaborgium after Hoffman s colleague Glenn Seaborg). She was awarded the prestigious Priestly Medal by the American Chemical Society in March 2000, the highest honor of the society, and is the only woman to receive the ACS Award for Nuclear Chemistry. 

For element 104 the names Kurchatovium (Ku) and Rutherfordium (Rf) were proposed by the groups at Dubna and Berkeley, respectively, thereby emphasizing their claim to the discoveries. The International Union on Pure and Applied Chemistry (lUPAC) has now decided on the following names element 104 Rutherfordium (Rf), element 105 Dubnium (Db), element 106 Seaborgium (Sg), element 107 Bohrium (Bh), element 108 Hassium (Hs), and element 109 Meitnerium (Mt). In the Periodic Table and nuclide charts we have thus used io4Rf. 106 8 107 > 108 So far no names have been... 

Seaborg won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951 for his work. Element 106, seaborgium, was named in his honor. 

Abstract In this chapter, the chemical properties of the man-made transactinide elements rutherfordium, Rf (element 104), dubnium, Db (element 105), seaborgium, Sg (element 106), bohrium, Bh (element 107), hassium, Hs (element 108), and copernicium, Cn (element 112) are reviewed, and prospects for chemical characterizations of even heavier elements are discussed. The experimental methods to perform rapid chemical separations on the time scale of seconds are presented and comments are given on the special situation with the transactmides where chemistry has to be studied with single atoms. It follows a description of theoretical predictions and selected experimental results on the chemistry of elements 104 through 108, and element 112. 

A source of great controversy was the naming of element 106. U.S. chemists endorsed the name seaborgium, in honor of the U.S. chemist Glenn Seaborg, who, over his career, led teams of scientists that synthesized 10 new elements. No person has ever equaled this achievement, so the Americans were confident that their proposal for the name of element 106 would easily gain acceptance from the worldwide scientific community. To their dismay, however, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (lUPAC) endorsed the name rutherfordium, in honor of Ernest Rutherford (see Section 5.3), for element 106. Moreover, the U.S. chemists were shocked by the lUPAC proposal that element 104 be named dubnium in honor of achievements at the research laboratory in Dubna, Russia. There were serious douhts as to the validity of the Russian chemists data. 

Abstract An overview over the chemical separation and characterization experiments of the four transactinide elements so far studied in liquid phases, rutherfordium (Rf), dubnium (Db), seaborgium (Sg), and hassium (Hs), is presented. Results are discussed in view of the position of these elements in the Periodic Table and of their relation to theoretical predictions. Short introductions on experimental techniques in liquid-phase chemistry, specifically automated rapid chemical separation systems, are also given. Studies of nuclear properties of transactinide nuclei by chemical isolation will be mentioned. Some perspectives for further liquid-phase chemistry on heavier elements are briefly discussed. 

Chapter 6 presents the wealth of information obtained about properties of transactinides up to element 106, seaborgium, in the aqueous phase. This includes new and detailed information on the chemistry of elements 104, rutherfordium, and element 105, dubnium. 

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