Livermorium

New element that has been added to the periodic table, Livermorium (Lv). Element 116, which was temporarily named ununhexium, almost ended up with the name moscovium in honor of the region of Moscow, where the research labs are located. In the end, it seems the American researchers won out and the team settled on the name livermorium, after the national labs and the city of Livermore in which they are located. Livermorium was first observed in 2000, when the scientists created it by putting together calcium and curium.

Livermorium is a metal, which is probably solid.

Discovery of Livermorium/Ununhexium
Author: Dr. Doug Stewart Element 116, livermorium, was first made in Dubna, Russia in July 2000. The work was a collaboration between science teams at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California led by Yuri Oganessian and Ken Moody. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) reviewed the work over a period of years and in 2011 finally accepted the discovery of ununhexium, as it was called at the time. The reaction was a fusion of element 20 with element 96: calcium-48 with curium-248. Calcium ions were formed into a beam in a cyclotron (a particle accelerator) and fired at a curium target. In the first instance a single atom of livermorium-292 was detected. It existed for 46.9 ms before undergoing alpha-decay to flerovium-288. In an experiment that lasted a year, two further atoms of livermorium-292 were made. The first existed for 125.5 ms and the second for 55.0 ms. By the end of the experiment a total of 2.3 x 1019 calcium ions had been fired at the curium target. (2) By 2005, 30 atoms of livermorium had been made. As a result of its position in Group 16 of the periodic table, livermorium is expected to be classed as one of the 'other metals' and/or to have similar properties to the metalloid polonium. Too little of the element has been synthesized for this to be confirmed. Ununhexium (Uuh) was element 116's temporary name until an official name was chosen by IUPAC. IUPAC has now recommended that element 116 should be named livermorium. Although this name has not yet been given final approval, there is little doubt that this will be the name chosen. The deputy director of Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) initially wanted element 116's name to be derived from Muscovy, in honor of the Moscow region. Subsequently, the name livermorium was chosen to honor the work carried out by the scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in the discovery of the superheavy elements. The joint teams at JINR in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore in California have published evidence for the synthesis of elements 113, 114, 115, 116, 117 and 118. IUPAC has accepted the discoveries of element 114 and element 116. It has not yet considered the evidence for the discovery of element 117 (ununseptium). IUPAC requires stronger evidence before it will confirm the synthesis of element 113 (ununtrium), element 115 (ununpentium), or element 118 (ununoctium).

Current and future experiments
The team at Dubna have indicated plans to synthesize ununhexium using the reaction between plutonium-244 and titanium-50. This experiment will allow them to assess the feasibility of using projectiles with Z > 20 required in the synthesis of superheavy elements with Z>118. Although initially scheduled for 2008, the reaction looking at the synthesis of evaporation residues has not been conducted to date. There are also plans to repeat the Cm-248 reaction at different projectile energies in order to probe the 2n channel, leading to the new isotope 294 Uuh. In addition, they have future plans to complete the excitation function of the 4n channel product, 292 Uuh, which will allow them to assess the stabilizing effect of the N=184 shell on the yield of evaporation residues.



Isotopes and nuclear properties
Chronology of isotope discovery Theoretical calculation in a quantum tunneling model supports the experimental data relating to the synthesis of 293,292Uuh. [|[20]][|[21]]
 * ~ Isotope ||~ Year discovered ||~ Discovery reaction ||
 * 290Uuh || 2002 || 249Cf(48Ca,3n) [|[19]] ||
 * 291Uuh || 2003 || 245Cm(48Ca,2n) [|[13]] ||
 * 292Uuh || 2004 || 248Cm(48Ca,4n) [|[4]] ||
 * 293Uuh || 2000 || 248Cm(48Ca,3n) [|[2]] ||

Retracted isotope289Uuh In 1999, researchers at [|Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory] announced the synthesis of 293Uuo (see [|ununoctium] ), in a paper published in //Physical Review Letters//. [|[22]] The claimed isotope 289Uuh decayed by 11.63 MeV alpha emission with a half-life of 0.64 ms. The following year, they published a [|retraction] after other researchers were unable to duplicate the results. [|[23]] In June 2002, the director of the lab announced that the original claim of the discovery of these two elements had been based on data fabricated by the principal author [|Victor Ninov]. As such, this isotope of ununhexium is currently unknown.

Extrapolated chemical properties
Ununhexium is projected to be the fourth member of the 7p series of [|non-metals] and the heaviest member of group 16 (VIA) in the Periodic Table, below [|polonium]. The group oxidation state of +VI is known for all the members apart from oxygen which lacks available d- [|orbitals] for expansion and is limited to a maximum +II state, exhibited in the fluoride OF2. The +IV is known for [|sulfur], [|selenium] , [|tellurium] , and [|polonium] , undergoing a shift in stability from reducing for S(IV) and Se(IV) to oxidizing in Po(IV). Tellurium(IV) is the most stable for this element. This suggests a decreasing stability for the higher oxidation states as the group is descended and ununhexium should portray an oxidizing +IV state and a more stable +II state. The lighter members are also known to form a −II state as [|oxide], [|sulfide] , [|selenide] , [|telluride] , and [|polonide].
 * Oxidation states **

** Chemistry **
The possible chemistry of ununhexium can be extrapolated from that of [|polonium]. It should therefore undergo [|oxidation] to a dioxide, UuhO2, although a trioxide, UuhO3 is plausible, but unlikely. The stability of a +II state should manifest itself in the formation of a simple monoxide, UuhO. [|Fluorination] will likely result in a tetrafluoride, UuhF4 and/or a difluoride, UuhF2. [|Chlorination] and [|bromination] may well stop at the corresponding dihalides, UuhCl2 and UuhBr2. [|Oxidation] by [|iodine] should certainly stop at UuhI2 and may even be [|inert] to this element