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"Uub" redirects here. For the fictional character, see Uub (Dragon Ball).
Copernicium, 112Cn
Copernicium
Pronunciation /ˌkoʊpərˈnɪsiəm/ (KOH-pər-NISS-ee-əm)
Mass number [285]
Copernicium in the periodic table
Hydrogen
Helium
Lithium
Beryllium
Boron
Carbon
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Fluorine
Neon
Sodium
Magnesium
Aluminium
Silicon
Phosphorus
Sulfur
Chlorine
Argon
Potassium
Calcium
Scandium
Titanium
Vanadium
Chromium
Manganese
Iron
Cobalt
Nickel
Copper
Zinc
Gallium
Germanium
Arsenic
Selenium
Bromine
Krypton
Rubidium
Strontium
Yttrium
Zirconium
Niobium
Molybdenum
Technetium
Ruthenium
Rhodium
Palladium
Silver
Cadmium
Indium
Tin
Antimony
Tellurium
Iodine
Xenon
Caesium
Barium
Lanthanum
Cerium
Praseodymium
Neodymium
Promethium
Samarium
Europium
Gadolinium
Terbium
Dysprosium
Holmium
Erbium
Thulium
Ytterbium
Lutetium
Hafnium
Tantalum
Tungsten
Rhenium
Osmium
Iridium
Platinum
Gold
Mercury (element)
Thallium
Lead
Bismuth
Polonium
Astatine
Radon
Francium
Radium
Actinium
Thorium
Protactinium
Uranium
Neptunium
Plutonium
Americium
Curium
Berkelium
Californium
Einsteinium
Fermium
Mendelevium
Nobelium
Lawrencium
Rutherfordium
Dubnium
Seaborgium
Bohrium
Hassium
Meitnerium
Darmstadtium
Roentgenium
Copernicium
Nihonium
Flerovium
Moscovium
Livermorium
Tennessine
Oganesson
Hg
↑
Cn
↓
(Uhh)
roentgenium ← copernicium → nihonium
Atomic number (Z) 112
Group group 12
Period period 7
Block d-block
Electron configuration [Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 (predicted)[1]
Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 18, 2 (predicted)
Physical properties
Phase at STP liquid (predicted)[2][3]
Melting point 283 ± 11 K (10 ± 11 °C, 50 ± 20 °F) (predicted)[3]
Boiling point 340 ± 10 K (67 ± 10 °C, 153 ± 18 °F)[3] (predicted)
Density (near r.t.) 14.0 g/cm3 (predicted)[3]
Triple point 283 K, 25 kPa (predicted)[3]
Atomic properties
Oxidation states 0, (+1), +2, (+4), (+6) (parenthesized: prediction)[1][4][5][6]
Ionization energies
1st: 1155 kJ/mol
2nd: 2170 kJ/mol
3rd: 3160 kJ/mol
(more) (all estimated)[1]
Atomic radius calculated: 147 pm[1][5] (predicted)
Covalent radius 122 pm (predicted)[7]
Other properties
Natural occurrence synthetic
Crystal structure hexagonal close-packed (hcp)Hexagonal close-packed crystal
structure for copernicium
(predicted)[3]
CAS Number 54084-26-3
History
Naming after Nicolaus Copernicus
Discovery Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (1996)
Isotopes of coperniciumve
Main isotopes[8] Decay
abundance half-life (t1/2) mode product
283Cn synth 3.81 s[9] α96% 279Ds
SF4% –
ε? 283Rg
285Cn synth 30 s α 281Ds
286Cn synth 8.4 s? SF –
Category: Copernicium
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Copernicium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Cn and atomic number
112. Its known isotopes are extremely radioactive, and have only been created in a
laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of
approximately 30 seconds. Copernicium was first created in 1996 by the GSI
Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany. It was named after
the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

In the periodic table of the elements, copernicium is a d-block transactinide

element and a group 12 element. During reactions with gold, it has been shown[10]
to be an extremely volatile element, so much so that it is possibly a gas or a
volatile liquid at standard temperature and pressure.

Copernicium is calculated to have several properties that differ from its lighter
homologues in group 12, zinc, cadmium and mercury; due to relativistic effects, it
may give up its 6d electrons instead of its 7s ones, and it may have more
similarities to the noble gases such as radon rather than its group 12 homologues.
Calculations indicate that copernicium may show the oxidation state +4, while
mercury shows it in only one compound of disputed existence and zinc and cadmium do
not show it at all. It has also been predicted to be more difficult to oxidize
copernicium from its neutral state than the other group 12 elements. Predictions
vary on whether solid copernicium would be a metal, semiconductor, or insulator.
Copernicium is one of the heaviest elements whose chemical properties have been
experimentally investigated.

Introduction
This section is transcluded from Introduction to the heaviest elements. (edit |
history)
A graphic depiction of a nuclear fusion reaction
A graphic depiction of a nuclear fusion reaction. Two nuclei fuse into one,
emitting a neutron. Thus far, reactions that created new elements were similar,
with the only possible difference that several singular neutrons sometimes were
released, or none at all.
External videos
video icon Visualization of unsuccessful nuclear fusion, based on calculations by
the Australian National University[11]
The heaviest[a] atomic nuclei are created in nuclear reactions that combine two
other nuclei of unequal size[b] into one; roughly, the more unequal the two nuclei
in terms of mass, the greater the possibility that the two react.[17] The material
made of the heavier nuclei is made into a target, which is then bombarded by the
beam of lighter nuclei. Two nuclei can fuse into one only if they approach each
other closely enough; normally, nuclei (all positively charged) repel each other
due to electrostatic repulsion. The strong interaction can overcome this repulsion
but only within a very short distance from a nucleus; beam nuclei are thus greatly
accelerated in order to make such repulsion insignificant compared to the velocity
of the beam nucleus.[18] Coming close alone is not enough for two nuclei to fuse:
when two nuclei approach each other, they usually remain together for approximately
10−20 seconds and then part ways (not necessarily in the same composition as before
the reaction) rather than form a single nucleus.[18][19] If fusion does occur, the
temporary merger—termed a compound nucleus—is an excited state. To lose its
excitation energy and reach a more stable state, a compound nucleus either fissions
or ejects one or several neutrons,[c] which carry away the energy. This occurs in
approximately 10−16 seconds after the initial collision.[20][d]

The beam passes through the target and reaches the next chamber, the separator; if
a new nucleus is produced, it is carried with this beam.[23] In the separator, the
newly produced nucleus is separated from other nuclides (that of the original beam
and any other reaction products)[e] and transferred to a surface-barrier detector,
which stops the nucleus. The exact location of the upcoming impact on the detector
is marked; also marked are its energy and the time of the arrival.[23] The transfer
takes about 10−6 seconds; in order to be detected, the nucleus must survive this
long.[26] The nucleus is recorded again once its decay is registered, and the
location, the energy, and the time of the decay are measured.[23]

Stability of a nucleus is provided by the strong interaction. However, its range is

very short; as nuclei become larger, their influence on the outermost nucleons
(protons and neutrons) weakens. At the same time, the nucleus is torn apart by
electrostatic repulsion between protons, as it has unlimited range.[27] Nuclei of
the heaviest elements are thus theoretically predicted[28] and have so far been
observed[29] to primarily decay via decay modes that are caused by such repulsion:
alpha decay and spontaneous fission;[f] these modes are predominant for nuclei of
superheavy elements. Alpha decays are registered by the emitted alpha particles,
and the decay products are easy to determine before the actual decay; if such a
decay or a series of consecutive decays produces a known nucleus, the original
product of a reaction can be determined arithmetically.[g] Spontaneous fission,
however, produces various nuclei as products, so the original nuclide cannot be
determined from its daughters.[h]

The information available to physicists aiming to synthesize one of the heaviest

elements is thus the information collected at the detectors: location, energy, and
time of arrival of a particle to the detector, and those of its decay. The
physicists analyze this data and seek to conclude that it was indeed caused by a
new element and could not have been caused by a different nuclide than the one
claimed. Often, provided data is insufficient for a conclusion that a new element
was definitely created and there is no other explanation for the observed effects;
errors in interpreting data have been made.[i]

History
Discovery
Copernicium was first created on February 9, 1996, at the Gesellschaft für
Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany, by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov
et al.[41] This element was created by firing accelerated zinc-70 nuclei at a
target made of lead-208 nuclei in a heavy ion accelerator. A single atom of
copernicium was produced with a mass number of 277. (A second was originally
reported, but was found to have been based on data fabricated by Ninov, and was
thus retracted.)[41]

208
82Pb + 70
30Zn → 278
112Cn* → 277
112Cn + 1
0n
In May 2000, the GSI successfully repeated the experiment to synthesize a further
atom of copernicium-277.[42] This reaction was repeated at RIKEN using the Search
for a Super-Heavy Element Using a Gas-Filled Recoil Separator set-up in 2004 and
2013 to synthesize three further atoms and confirm the decay data reported by the
GSI team.[43][44] This reaction had also previously been tried in 1971 at the Joint
Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia to aim for 276Cn (produced in the
2n channel), but without success.[45]

The IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party (JWP) assessed the claim of copernicium's
discovery by the GSI team in 2001[46] and 2003.[47] In both cases, they found that
there was insufficient evidence to support their claim. This was primarily related
to the contradicting decay data for the known nuclide rutherfordium-261. However,
between 2001 and 2005, the GSI team studied the reaction 248Cm(26Mg,5n)269Hs, and
were able to confirm the decay data for hassium-269 and rutherfordium-261. It was
found that the existing data on rutherfordium-261 was for an isomer,[48] now
designated rutherfordium-261m.

In May 2009, the JWP reported on the claims of discovery of element 112 again and
officially recognized the GSI team as the discoverers of element 112.[49] This
decision was based on the confirmation of the decay properties of daughter nuclei
as well as the confirmatory experiments at RIKEN.[50]

Work had also been done at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna,
Russia from 1998 to synthesise the heavier isotope 283Cn in the hot fusion reaction
238U(48Ca,3n)283Cn; most observed atoms of 283Cn decayed by spontaneous fission,
although an alpha decay branch to 279Ds was detected. While initial experiments
aimed to assign the produced nuclide with its observed long half-life of 3 minutes
based on its chemical behaviour, this was found to be not mercury-like as would
have been expected (copernicium being under mercury in the periodic table),[50] and
indeed now it appears that the long-lived activity might not have been from 283Cn
at all, but its electron capture daughter 283Rg instead, with a shorter 4-second
half-life associated with 283Cn. (Another possibility is assignment to a metastable
isomeric state, 283mCn.)[51] While later cross-bombardments in the 242Pu+48Ca and
245Cm+48Ca reactions succeeded in confirming the properties of 283Cn and its
parents 287Fl and 291Lv, and played a major role in the acceptance of the
discoveries of flerovium and livermorium (elements 114 and 116) by the JWP in 2011,
this work originated subsequent to the GSI's work on 277Cn and priority was
assigned to the GSI.[50]

Naming
a painted portrait of Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus, who formulated a heliocentric model with the planets orbiting
around the Sun, replacing Ptolemy's earlier geocentric model.
Using Mendeleev's nomenclature for unnamed and undiscovered elements, copernicium
should be known as eka-mercury. In 1979, IUPAC published recommendations according
to which the element was to be called ununbium (with the corresponding symbol of
Uub),[52] a systematic element name as a placeholder, until the element was
discovered (and the discovery then confirmed) and a permanent name was decided on.
Although widely used in the chemical community on all levels, from chemistry
classrooms to advanced textbooks, the recommendations were mostly ignored among
scientists in the field, who either called it "element 112", with the symbol of
E112, (112), or even simply 112.[1]

After acknowledging the GSI team's discovery, the IUPAC asked them to suggest a
permanent name for element 112.[50][53] On 14 July 2009, they proposed copernicium
with the element symbol Cp, after Nicolaus Copernicus "to honor an outstanding
scientist, who changed our view of the world".[54]

During the standard six-month discussion period among the scientific community
about the naming,[55][56] it was pointed out that the symbol Cp was previously
associated with the name cassiopeium (cassiopium), now known as lutetium (Lu), and
the compound cyclopentadiene.[57][58] For this reason, the IUPAC disallowed the use
of Cp as a future symbol, prompting the GSI team to put forward the symbol Cn as an
alternative. On 19 February 2010, the 537th anniversary of Copernicus' birth, IUPAC
officially accepted the proposed name and symbol.[55][59]

Isotopes
Main article: Isotopes of copernicium
List of copernicium isotopes vte
Isotope Half-life[j] Decay
mode Discovery
year Discovery
reaction
Value ref
277Cn 0.79 ms [8] α 1996 208Pb(70Zn,n)
281Cn 0.18 s [60] α 2010 285Fl(—,α)
282Cn 0.83 ms [9] SF 2003 290Lv(—,2α)
283Cn 3.81 s [9] α, SF, EC? 2003 287Fl(—,α)
284Cn 121 ms [61] α, SF 2004 288Fl(—,α)
285Cn 30 s [8] α 1999 289Fl(—,α)
285mCn[k] 15 s [8] α 2012 293mLv(—,2α)
286Cn[k] 8.45 s [62] SF 2016 294Lv(—,2α)
Copernicium has no stable or naturally occurring isotopes. Several radioactive
isotopes have been synthesized in the laboratory, either by fusing two atoms or by
observing the decay of heavier elements. Seven different isotopes have been
reported with mass numbers 277 and 281–286, and one unconfirmed metastable isomer
in 285Cn has been reported.[63] Most of these decay predominantly through alpha
decay, but some undergo spontaneous fission, and copernicium-283 may have an
electron capture branch.[64]

The isotope copernicium-283 was instrumental in the confirmation of the discoveries

of the elements flerovium and livermorium.[65]

Half-lives
All confirmed copernicium isotopes are extremely unstable and radioactive; in
general, heavier isotopes are more stable than the lighter. The most stable known
isotope, 285Cn, has a half-life of 30 seconds; 283Cn has a half-life of 4 seconds,
and the unconfirmed 285mCn and 286Cn have half-lives of about 15 and 8.45 seconds
respectively. Other isotopes have half-lives shorter than one second. 281Cn and
284Cn both have half-lives on the order of 0.1 seconds, and the other two isotopes
have half-lives slightly under one millisecond.[64] It is predicted that the heavy
isotopes 291Cn and 293Cn may have half-lives longer than a few decades, for they
are predicted to lie near the center of the theoretical island of stability, and
may have been produced in the r-process and be detectable in cosmic rays, though
they would be about 10−12 times as abundant as lead.[66]

The lightest isotopes of copernicium have been synthesized by direct fusion between
two lighter nuclei and as decay products (except for 277Cn, which is not known to
be a decay product), while the heavier isotopes are only known to be produced by
decay of heavier nuclei. The heaviest isotope produced by direct fusion is 283Cn;
the three heavier isotopes, 284Cn, 285Cn, and 286Cn, have only been observed as
decay products of elements with larger atomic numbers.[64]

In 1999, American scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, announced

that they had succeeded in synthesizing three atoms of 293Og.[67] These parent
nuclei were reported to have successively emitted three alpha particles to form
copernicium-281 nuclei, which were claimed to have undergone alpha decay, emitting
alpha particles with decay energy 10.68 MeV and half-life 0.90 ms, but their claim
was retracted in 2001[68] as it had been based on data fabricated by Ninov.[69]
This isotope was truly produced in 2010 by the same team; the new data contradicted
the previous fabricated data.[70]

Predicted properties
Very few properties of copernicium or its compounds have been measured; this is due
to its extremely limited and expensive production[71] and the fact that copernicium
(and its parents) decays very quickly. A few singular chemical properties have been
measured, as well as the boiling point, but properties of the copernicium metal
remain generally unknown and for the most part, only predictions are available.

Chemical
Copernicium is the tenth and last member of the 6d series and is the heaviest group
12 element in the periodic table, below zinc, cadmium and mercury. It is predicted
to differ significantly from the lighter group 12 elements. The valence s-subshells
of the group 12 elements and period 7 elements are expected to be relativistically
contracted most strongly at copernicium. This and the closed-shell configuration of
copernicium result in it probably being a very noble metal. A standard reduction
potential of +2.1 V is predicted for the Cn2+/Cn couple. Copernicium's predicted
first ionization energy of 1155 kJ/mol almost matches that of the noble gas xenon
at 1170.4 kJ/mol.[1] Copernicium's metallic bonds should also be very weak,
possibly making it extremely volatile like the noble gases, and potentially making
it gaseous at room temperature.[1][72] However, it should be able to form metal–
metal bonds with copper, palladium, platinum, silver, and gold; these bonds are
predicted to be only about 15–20 kJ/mol weaker than the analogous bonds with
mercury.[1] In opposition to the earlier suggestion,[73] ab initio calculations at
the high level of accuracy[74] predicted that the chemistry of singly-valent
copernicium resembles that of mercury rather than that of the noble gases. The
latter result can be explained by the huge spin–orbit interaction which
significantly lowers the energy of the vacant 7p1/2 state of copernicium.

Once copernicium is ionized, its chemistry may present several differences from
those of zinc, cadmium, and mercury. Due to the stabilization of 7s electronic
orbitals and destabilization of 6d ones caused by relativistic effects, Cn2+ is
likely to have a [Rn]5f146d87s2 electronic configuration, using the 6d orbitals
before the 7s one, unlike its homologues. The fact that the 6d electrons
participate more readily in chemical bonding means that once copernicium is
ionized, it may behave more like a transition metal than its lighter homologues,
especially in the possible +4 oxidation state. In aqueous solutions, copernicium
may form the +2 and perhaps +4 oxidation states.[1] The diatomic ion Hg2+
2, featuring mercury in the +1 oxidation state, is well-known, but the Cn2+
2 ion is predicted to be unstable or even non-existent.[1] Copernicium(II)
fluoride, CnF2, should be more unstable than the analogous mercury compound,
mercury(II) fluoride (HgF2), and may even decompose spontaneously into its
constituent elements. As the most electronegative reactive element, fluorine may be
the only element able to oxidise copernicium even further to the +4 and even +6
oxidation states in CnF4 and CnF6; the latter may require matrix-isolation
conditions to be detected, as in the disputed detection of HgF4. CnF4 should be
more stable than CnF2.[6] In polar solvents, copernicium is predicted to
preferentially form the CnF−
5 and CnF−
3 anions rather than the analogous neutral fluorides (CnF4 and CnF2, respectively),
although the analogous bromide or iodide ions may be more stable towards hydrolysis
in aqueous solution. The anions CnCl2−
4 and CnBr2−
4 should also be able to exist in aqueous solution.[1] The formation of
thermodynamically stable copernicium(II) and (IV) fluorides would be analogous to
the chemistry of xenon.[3] Analogous to mercury(II) cyanide (Hg(CN)2), copernicium
is expected to form a stable cyanide, Cn(CN)2.[75]