Nobelium
Nobelium is a synthetic, highly radioactive metal whose discovery was contested for years, with laboratories in Sweden, the United States, and the Soviet Union all weighing in before the record was settled. It has no practical use and survives, at most, for a matter of minutes before decaying.
- Group · Period
- — · 7
- At room temp
- solid
- Melts at
- 1100 K
- Density
- Not yet available
- Discovered
- 1957
Uses
Nobelium has no practical use outside of research. It exists only in laboratory quantities, decays within minutes at best, and is far too rare and unstable for any commercial or industrial role. Its main scientific value has been in helping researchers test theories about how electrons and nuclei behave at the far end of the actinide series.
History
Nobelium’s discovery was unusually messy even by the standards of this part of the periodic table. A team working at the Nobel Institute in Stockholm first reported producing it in 1957, and proposed the name that stuck, but other laboratories couldn’t reproduce their result. Over the following years, researchers in the United States and the Soviet Union each reported their own, differing evidence for the element, and it took sustained further work before the scientific community reached agreement on how and when nobelium had actually been made.
Fun facts
- Nobelium is named after Alfred Nobel, via the Nobel Institute in Stockholm, whose team made the first — later disputed — claim to have discovered it.
- Its discovery was contested for years between labs in Sweden, the United States, and the Soviet Union before more convincing evidence settled the matter.
- Every known isotope of nobelium decays within minutes at most, with the most stable lasting only a few hours under ideal conditions.
Frequently asked questions
Does nobelium have any practical use?
No, nobelium has no commercial or industrial application. It exists only in physics and chemistry research aimed at understanding how the heaviest elements behave.
Why was nobelium's discovery disputed?
A team working at Sweden's Nobel Institute first claimed to have produced it in 1957, but other laboratories were unable to reproduce that result. Subsequent, more convincing work at labs in the United States and the Soviet Union produced conflicting claims of their own, and it took years of further research before the element's discovery could be confirmed with confidence — a dispute common to several elements from this era.
Who is nobelium named after?
Alfred Nobel, the chemist and engineer whose fortune endows the Nobel Prizes, honored here through the Nobel Institute in Stockholm that was involved in the element's first claimed discovery.
Isotopes
14 known isotopes
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| Isotope | Natural abundance | Half-life | Decay mode | Mass excess | Binding energy / nucleon | Decay width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No-253 | — | 1.62 m | Alpha decay (55%), Electron capture / beta-plus decay (45%) | 84,358.7 keV | 7,422.47 keV | 4.69 × 10-18 eV |
| No-255 | — | 3.52 m | Electron capture / beta-plus decay (70%), Alpha decay (30%) | 86,811.93 keV | 7,417.94 keV | 2.16 × 10-18 eV |
| No-259 | — | 58 m | Alpha decay (75%), Electron capture / beta-plus decay (25%), Spontaneous fission (10%) | 94,079.38 keV | 7,399.97 keV | 1.31 × 10-19 eV |
Show all 14 isotopes
| No-248 | — | 2 us | Unknown | 80,689 keV | 7,424 keV | 2.28 × 10-10 eV |
| No-249 | — | 38.1 ms | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (0.23%), ECP | 81,787 keV | 7,422 keV | 1.20 × 10-14 eV |
| No-250 | — | 4.2 us | Spontaneous fission (100%), Alpha decay (2%) | 81,566 keV | 7,426 keV | 1.09 × 10-10 eV |
| No-251 | — | 0.80 s | Alpha decay (91%), Spontaneous fission (0.3%), Electron capture / beta-plus decay | 82,849 keV | 7,423 keV | 5.70 × 10-16 eV |
| No-252 | — | 2.46 s | Alpha decay (65.3%), Spontaneous fission (33%), Electron capture / beta-plus decay (1.7%) | 82,871.37 keV | 7,425.8 keV | 1.85 × 10-16 eV |
| No-254 | — | 51.2 s | Alpha decay (90%), Electron capture (10%), Spontaneous fission (0.17%) | 84,723.31 keV | 7,423.59 keV | 8.91 × 10-18 eV |
| No-256 | — | 2.91 s | Alpha decay (99.47%), Spontaneous fission (0.53%) | 87,823.05 keV | 7,416.54 keV | 1.57 × 10-16 eV |
| No-257 | — | 24.5 s | Alpha decay (85%), Electron capture (30%), Spontaneous fission (1.5%) | 90,247.06 keV | 7,409.66 keV | 1.86 × 10-17 eV |
| No-258 | — | 1.2 ms | Spontaneous fission (100%) | 91,477 keV | 7,407 keV | 3.80 × 10-13 eV |
| No-260 | — | 106 ms | Spontaneous fission (100%) | 95,610 keV | 7,397 keV | 4.30 × 10-15 eV |
| No-262 | — | 5 ms | Spontaneous fission (100%) | 100,101 keV | 7,385 keV | 9.12 × 10-14 eV |