Element 107

1999/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

A Berkeley radiochemical team has managed to calculate the volatility of the Borio using the Philips cyclotron from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Bern. The Borio is the element 107 of the Periodic Table, one of the heaviest elements known so far in chemistry. The elements of great weight (i.e., the elements with high content of protons and neutrons in the nucleus) are very unstable and their chemical characteristics are very difficult to analyze.

For the chemists so far it could be said that the Periodic Table “ended” in element 106, but thanks to this discovery the properties of element 107 are known.

Researchers have used a Borio isotope with an average life of 15 seconds and have been bombarded in the cyclotron with a ray of ions. Among the reaction products generated in the reaction have been obtained a few cores of the Borio, which has allowed them to know the properties of the element.