A team of scientists at the Berkeley Lab has reported some of the properties of element 99 in the periodic table called “Einsteinium,” which is named after Albert Einstein. It was discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb (the detonation of a thermonuclear device called “Ivy Mike” in the Pacific Ocean). Since its discovery, scientists have not been able to do many experiments with it because it is difficult to create and is highly radioactive. Therefore, very little is known about this element.
With this new study published in the journal Nature last week, for the first time researchers have been able to characterize some of the properties of the element.
The discovery of the element
When Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, as part of a test at a remote place on the island called Elugelab in Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific, it produced an explosion about 500 times more. destructive than the Nagasaki explosion. Subsequently, the material resulting from this explosion was sent to Berkeley, California, for analysis, which was examined by Gregory Choppin, Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso, and Bernard Harvey, who within a month had discovered and identified more. of 200 atoms of the new element.
According to a podcast directed by Chemistry World, the discovery of the element was not revealed for at least three years and it was first suggested that the element bear Einstein’s name in the Physical Review in 1955.
What did the researchers find?
The scientists worked with less than 250 nanograms of the artificial element, which was made in the high-flow isotope reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is one of the few places in the world capable of making einsteinium.
Specifically, the team worked with einsteinium-254, one of the most stable isotopes of the element that has a half-life of 276 days. The most common isotope of the element, einsteinium 253, has a half-life of 20 days.
Due to its high radioactivity and the short half-life of all einsteinium isotopes, even if the element was present on Earth during its formation, it has surely decayed. This is the reason why it cannot be found in nature and it must be manufactured through very precise and intense processes.
Therefore, so far the element has been produced in very small quantities and its use is limited except for the purposes of scientific research. The item is not visible to the naked eye either, and after it was discovered, it took nine years to make enough of it to be visible to the naked eye.
“In part, the small quantities of Einsteinium that have been manufactured reflect the difficulty of producing it. But it also receives the sad acknowledgment of having no known use. There really is no reason to make einsteinium except as a waypoint on the route to produce something else. It’s an element without a role in life, ”the Chemical World podcast said.
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For recent research, using X-ray precision produced by a particle accelerator, scientists were able to examine this element to find out how it binds to atoms. By studying this atomic arrangement, scientists can find out interesting chemical properties of other elements and isotopes that may be useful for nuclear power production and radiopharmaceuticals, quoted Rebecca Aberge, who led the study in a communiqué.