Flerovium
Flerovium is a synthetic superheavy element in the carbon group, sitting below lead, and was one of the first superheavy elements where researchers found tantalizing hints of the long-theorized "island of stability" — some of its isotopes last noticeably longer than neighboring elements, though still only seconds. It exists solely as atoms produced in particle accelerators and has never been observed in nature. It's named after Georgy Flyorov, the Soviet physicist who founded the laboratory where it was created.
- Group · Period
- 14 · 7
- At room temp
- solid
- Melts at
- Not yet available
- Density
- Not yet available
- Discovered
- 1998
Uses
Flerovium has no practical, industrial or medical use, and its scarcity and instability mean it never will. Its importance is purely scientific: studying flerovium helps researchers test predictions about nuclear stability and search for the theorized island of stability among superheavy nuclei.
History
Flerovium was first synthesized in 1998 by researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, working in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, who fused accelerated calcium nuclei with a plutonium target. It was named flerovium after Georgy Flyorov, the physicist who founded Dubna’s laboratory for nuclear reactions and pioneered much of the Soviet Union’s early work on superheavy elements. The name was formally adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in 2012.
Fun facts
- Flerovium is named after Georgy Flyorov, the Soviet physicist who founded the nuclear research laboratory in Dubna, Russia, where much superheavy-element research has taken place.
- Some isotopes of flerovium last several seconds — a genuinely long lifespan by superheavy-element standards — which researchers see as early evidence for a theorized 'island of stability' among certain superheavy nuclei.
- Flerovium sits below lead on the periodic table, and chemists have long debated whether it might behave more like a volatile, gas-like element than a typical metal, though far too few atoms have ever been made to settle the question.
Frequently asked questions
Does flerovium have any real-world use?
No — flerovium has no commercial, industrial or medical applications. It's studied purely to advance fundamental understanding of nuclear physics and the limits of the periodic table.
How is flerovium made?
Flerovium is produced by accelerating a beam of calcium nuclei and firing it at a plutonium target, so that the two nuclei occasionally fuse into a single flerovium nucleus. Each successful fusion is identified by the specific chain of radioactive decays the new atom produces.
What is the 'island of stability' researchers mention with flerovium?
It's a theoretical region of unusually stable superheavy nuclei that physicists predict should exist at certain combinations of protons and neutrons. Flerovium's isotopes decay a little more slowly than many neighboring elements, which some researchers take as an early sign that this predicted region may be nearby.
Isotopes
7 known isotopes
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| Isotope | Natural abundance | Half-life | Decay mode | Mass excess | Binding energy / nucleon | Decay width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fl-288 | — | 0.64 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (3%) | 174,917 keV | 7,154 keV | 7.13 × 10-16 eV |
| Fl-289 | — | 2.4 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (6%) | 177,465 keV | 7,149 keV | 1.90 × 10-16 eV |
| Fl-290 | — | 19 s | Electron capture / beta-plus decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (50%), Alpha decay (50%) | 178,731 keV | 7,147 keV | 2.40 × 10-17 eV |
Show all 7 isotopes
| Fl-284 | — | 2.5 ms | Spontaneous fission (100%), Alpha decay (25%) | 168,779 keV | 7,163 keV | 1.82 × 10-13 eV |
| Fl-285 | — | 101 ms | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (12.5%) | 170,932 keV | 7,159 keV | 4.52 × 10-15 eV |
| Fl-286 | — | 166 ms | Alpha decay (60%), Spontaneous fission (40%) | 171,606 keV | 7,159 keV | 2.75 × 10-15 eV |
| Fl-287 | — | 0.40 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (5%) | 173,929 keV | 7,155 keV | 1.14 × 10-15 eV |