Copernicium

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Copernicium is a radioactive, artificially generated, non-naturally occurring chemical element with the element symbol Cn and atomic number 112, which is one of the Transactinoiden. On June 10, 2009, it was officially confirmed. The approach proposed by the Society for Heavy Ion Research name was adopted by IUPAC on February 19, 2010. Until then, was the element Ununbium.

Production and representation

Copernicium was first on 9 February 1996 at the GSI in Darmstadt by Sigurd Hofmann and Victor Ninov by fusing a zinc ( 70Zn ) - creates and a lead ( 208Pb ) nucleus:

Ununbium was the provisional name, which comes from Latin and stands for the digits of the number 112 ( for 1 un, bi for 2). The discovery was submitted to the IUPAC and recognized in May 2009.

Before naming the name eka- mercury was used, described the position under mercury in the periodic table.

The name was proposed on 14 July 2009 by the GSI Copernicium (chemical symbol Cn) in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus ( 1473-1543 ). This proposal was examined by the IUPAC officially announced on 19 February 2010, being the 537th birthday of astronomer.

As for the symbol, there was initially discussions. On the one hand the symbol Cp was used until 1949 in the German speaking for the Cassiopeium element that is today called lutetium (Lu). In addition, the symbol Cp is also used in organic chemistry, to refer to the cyclopentadienyl ligand. For this reason, the IUPAC initially did not allow the use of Cp symbol for Copernicium and proposed instead the symbol Cn as an alternative.

Properties

According to press release from the Paul Scherrer Institute in May 2006 experiments showed that Copernicium chemically similar to mercury (Hg ) is doing. This statement is based on the observation of only two atoms 283Cn. They arose from bombarding plutonium with calcium and had a half-life of about four seconds.