Meitnerium
Meitnerium is a chemical element with the symbol Mt and atomic number 109. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element (an element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature); the most stable known isotope, meitnerium-278, has a half-life of 7.6 seconds. Meitnerium was first created in 1982 by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany. It is named after the physicist Lise Meitner.
In the periodic table, it is a d-block transactinide element. It is a member of the 7th period and is placed in the group 9 elements, although no chemical experiments have been carried out to confirm that it behaves as the heavier homologue to iridium in group 9. Meitnerium is calculated to have similar properties to its lighter homologues, cobalt, rhodium, and iridium.
Meitnerium was first synthesized by research scientists led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenber at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany in 1982.
They bombarded bismuth-209 with accelerated iron-58 nuclei.
The element was named after physicist and mathematician Lise Meitner.
Appearance and Characteristics
Harmful effects:
Meitnerium is harmful due to its radioactivity.
Characteristics:
- Meitnerium is a synthetic, radioactive metal and has only been produced in tiny amounts.
Uses of Meitnerium
- Meitnerium is of scientific research interest only.
