longest element name on the periodic table

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What is the longest element name on the periodic table?

Best Answer

Rutherfordium

Table of Contents

Rutherfordium has 13 letters. It is the longest element on the periodic table. Rutherfordium 267Rf is an artificial radioactive transuranium element. It has an electronic configuration [Rn] 5f 14 6d 2 7s 2. It is named after Ernest Rutherford, a British-born nuclear physicist.

Question	Answer
What is the longest element name on the periodic table?	Rutherfordium

Rutherfordium

Discovery

Soviet (Russian) and American scientists disputed the credit for discovering element 104. A team of Russian scientists led by George Flerov from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna claimed to have discovered element 104. They named it Kurchatovium Ku (Ku) after Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (a Soviet nuclear physicist).

They bombarded Plutonium-242 using a beam full of Neon-22 Ions and observed nuclear fission, indicating a new element’s existence. Although this discovery was not widely accepted, repeated experiments in Dubna in 1966 confirmed it. Based on calculations, they concluded that Rutherfordium 265 was the probable cause. They found that the element had a half-life of 0.3 seconds. This was later changed to 0.15 seconds. [2]

In 1969, a team of American scientists supervised by Albert Ghiorso at the Californian Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley attempted to get the same isotope, but they used a different method. They bombarded californium-249 with Carbon-12 and Carbon-13 and obtained two different isotopes of element 104 with mass numbers 257 and 258, respectively. They also obtained an isotope with mass number 261 by bombarding curium-248 with oxygen-18. They proposed the name Rutherfordium in honor of Ernst Rutherford to element 104. [1, 3]

Controversy in naming

The naming of element 104 caused controversy between American and Soviet scientists. The “International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) temporarily called it Unnilquadium (“Unq”). [4] IUPAC gave credit to both the Berkeley and Dubna teams. Still, they gave more credit to the latter because they could synthesize a large amount of Rutherfordium isotopes (257 and 258, respectively) with longer half-lives. They could also detect the decayed product (Nobelium Isotope), while the Dubna team could only synthesize a few atoms of Rf-260. In 1997, IUPAC gave the element its name: Rutherfordium. [5] Dubna Team was named Dubnium (Db) to element 105. [4]

Isotopes

Rutherfordium, a radioactive element synthesized from 16 radioisotopes, has an atomic mass of 253-270 (266Rf and 268Rf are not confirmed), while 267Rf is most stable with 1.3h at t1/2. [6]

Properties

It is the first transactinide radioactive element to be chemically synthesized in the laboratory through a fusion of atoms or the disintegration of heavy isotopes. It is a d-block transition metal belonging to Group IVB and Period 7. It is expected to exist in solid-state form and has similarities with hafnium. [7]

Application

Although it is not practical in everyday life, it is extremely important for research. [3]

Protactinium

Protactinium, 12 letters long, is tied for second place on the periodic table. Protactinium ( 91Pr ) is a radioactive actinoid that is heavy, shiny, and silver-gray. It was first predicted in 1871 by Dmitri Mendeleev. William Crooks isolated it in 1900 from Uranium and called it UraniumX. However, he did not specify that it was a new element. Kasimir Fujan, Otto Gohring, and others discovered 234Pa in 1913. It was named Brevium, meaning “brief” because of its short half-life (6.7h), while the long-lived 231Pa, which has a half-life of 32,760 years, was discovered in 1918 by Otto Hahn, Lisa Meitner, and John Cranston independently. This was then called protoactinium.

Aristid V. Grosse first isolated it in 1934. In 1949, IUPAC changed its name to protactinium. This is because it radioactively decays into actinium. It is not used for research purposes due to its radioactivity. [8,9]

Praseodymium

Praseodymium, another long element name, measures 12 letters. Praseodymium ( 59Pr) is a soft, malleable, and silvery metal that occupies third place in the Lanthanide Series. Carl Welsbach, an Austrian chemist, discovered it. He found it in 1885 from the lanthanoid mixture Didymium (Di). It was named after the Greek vocables “precious” (green) and Didymus (“twin”), which were used to describe its pale green salts as well as its lanthanum-like behavior. It is used extensively as an alloying agent in Mischmetal and plane engines. [10]

Darmstadtium

Darmstadtium, another element tied for second as the longest element names on the periodic table, is also an element. Darmstadtium ( 110Ds) is a highly radioactive, synthetic element in d-block. A group of international scientists at GSI Darmstadt created it. It was named after Darmstadt, the city where it was first discovered. Because of its high decay rate and low production, Darmstadtium’s properties are unknown. It is also used in basic scientific research. [11,12]

Conclusion

Rutherfordium has 13 letters. Protactinium and Praseodymium are next at 12 letters. Darmstadtium follows at 12 letters. To measure the length of the names, we used the character counter. We hope that you enjoyed this article.

References:

Periodic Table. Rsc.org. (2022). Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/104/rutherfordium.

2) National Center for Biotechnology Information (2022). PubChem Element Summary Atomic Number 104, Rutherfordium. Retrieved June 24, 2022, from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/element/Rutherfordium.

3) Stewart, Doug. (2012, October 24). Rutherfordium. Rutherfordium; www.chemicool.com. https://www.chemicool.com/elements/rutherfordium.html.

4) (1997). Names and symbols for transfermium elements (IUPAC recommendations 1997). Pure and Applied Chemistry, 69(12), 2471-2474. https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199769122471

5) Britannica T. Editors Encyclopaedia (2021 May 16). rutherfordium. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/rutherfordium.

6) Isotopes rutherfordium Wikipedia (2008, June 6). Wikipedia; en.wikipedia.org. Isotopes Of Rutherfordium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_rutherfordium.

Periodic Table. Rsc.org. (2022). Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/104/rutherfordium.

8) National Center for Biotechnology Information (2022). PubChem Element Summary: Atomic Number 91, Protactinium. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/element/Protactinium

9) Morss L. (2019 November 21). protactinium. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/protactinium.

10) National Center for Biotechnology Information (2022). PubChem Element Summary: AtomicNumber59, Praseodymium. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/element/Praseodymium.

11) National Center for Biotechnology Information (222). PubChem Element Summary AtomicNumber 110 Darmstadtium. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/element/Darmstadtium.

12) Darmstadtium – Wikipedia. (2019, September 1st). Darmstadtium – Wikipedia; en.wikipedia.org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadtium.

What is the longest element name on the periodic table?

Rutherfordium has 13 letters. It is the longest element on the periodic table.