Seaborgium

Physical properties

Seaborgium (₁₀₆Sg-266) has several chemical and physical properties similar (homologous)to molybdenum (₄₂Mo-96) and tungsten (₇₄W-184), the elements located just above seaborgiumin group 6 (VIB). Scientists do not know why Sg has properties and characteristicssimilar to the elements above it in group 6. This factor seems odd considering that the twoelements in the transactinide series preceding seaborgium (₁₀₄Rf-261 and ₁₀₅Db-262) do nothave homologues above them in groups 4 ad 5. Seaborgium-266 is the most stable isotopeof seaborgium. It has a half-life of 21 seconds and decays into rutherfordium-262 throughspontaneour fission (SF) and alpha emission.
The melting point, boiling point, and density of seaborgium are unknown. What is knownis that its isotopes are radioactive metals with short half-lives and that these isotopes decay byfission and alpha emissions.

Isotopes

There a total of 16 isotopes of unnilhexium (seaborgium) with half-lives rangingfrom 2.9 milliseconds to 22 seconds. All are artificially produced and radioactive, andthey decay by spontaneous fission (SF) or alpha decay.

Origin of Name

Named after and in honor of the nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg.

History

The discovery of Seaborgium, Element 106, took place in 1974 almost simultaneously at the Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory and at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, Russia. The Berkeley Group, under direction of Ghiorso, used the Super-Heavy Ion Linear Accelerator (Super HILAC) as a source of heavy 18O ions to bombard a 259-μg target of ²⁴⁹Cf. This resulted in the production and positive identification of ²⁶³106, which decayed with a half-life of 0.9 ± 0.2 s by the emission of alpha particles.
The Dubna Team, directed by Flerov and Organessian, produced heavy ions of 54Cr with their 310-cm heavy-ion cyclotron to bombard ²⁰⁷Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb and found a product that decayed with a half-life of 7 ms. They assigned ²⁵⁹106 to this isotope. It is now thought seven isotopes of Seaborgium have been identified. Two of the isotopes are believed to have halflives of about 30 s. Seaborgium most likely would have properties resembling tungsten. The IUPAC adopted the name Seaborgium in August 1997. Normally the naming of an element is not given until after the death of the person for which the element is named; however, in this case, it was named while Dr. Seaborg was still alive.

The Uses of Seaborgium

None except for research purposes.

Definition

A radioactive metallic element not occurring naturally on Earth. It can be made by bombarding ²⁴⁹Cf with ¹⁸O nuclei using a cyclotron. Six isotopes are known. Symbol: Sg; most stable isotope ²⁶⁶Sg (half-life 27.3s).

Definition

seaborgium: Symbol Sg. A radioactivetransactinide element; a.n.106. It was first detected in 1974 byAlbert Ghiorso and a team in California.It can be produced by bombardingcalifornium-249 nuclei withoxygen-18 nuclei. It is named afterthe US physicist Glenn Seaborg(1912–99).

Hazard

The hazards for seaborgium are the same as for any radioactive isotopes, but since only afew short-lived atoms are produced, there is no danger to the public.