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Article: Chemistry at periodic table's edge. (element 105, dubbed hahnium, is observed)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 10, 1987
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1987 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Chemistry at periodic table's edge
Element 105 (dubbed hahnium by U.S. researchers and nielsbohrium by the Soviets,) at the outer reaches of the periodic table, is one of the more reluctant elements when it comes to revealing its chemical properties. For one thing, its half-life is a fleeting 35 seconds; for another, it's extremely hard to produce. When Darleane Hoffman and her colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) Laboratory recently produced it by bombarding berkelium-249 with oxygen-18 ions, they created only 47 hahnium-262 isotopes in 800 experiments.
The researchers, who used a rapid chemical separation technique, now report they have made the ...