Livermorium – facts and properties
- Symbol
- Lv
- Atomic number
- 116
- Atomic mass
- 293 u
- Period
- 7
- Group
- 16
- Category
- unknown, probably metal
- Electron configuration
- [Rn] 5f¹⁴ 6d¹⁰ 7s² 7p⁴
- Valence electrons
- 6
- State at standard conditions
- expected to be solid
- Discovered
- 2000
Livermorium has atomic number 116 and is an artificial, highly radioactive element. It stands in group 16 below polonium and was made at Dubna together with researchers of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Almost nothing about its properties has been measured. The name honours the laboratory and the city it stands in.
Position in the periodic table
Occurrence and extraction
Livermorium exists only in the laboratory. All known isotopes are radioactive and halve within fractions of a second. The isotope livermorium-293, whose mass number is given as the atomic mass, has a half-life of a few tens of milliseconds. The lighter isotopes decay even faster.
The discovery falls in 2000. At Dubna a group around Yuri Oganessian bombarded a curium-248 target with calcium-48 ions, by the principle of hot fusion from the flerovium page. The detector recorded an atom that decayed through flerovium and copernicium into lighter nuclei. In the following years further experiments delivered more atoms and supported the assignment. In 2011 the joint working group of IUPAC and IUPAP recognised the discovery for Dubna and Livermore.
Livermorium is named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the American research laboratory in the city of Livermore, California. It was founded in 1952 by Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller. Lawrence invented the cyclotron and is also the namesake of lawrencium. The laboratory took part in all five discoveries of this last stretch, from flerovium to oganesson. The name was fixed in 2012 together with that of flerovium.
Properties and reactions
Livermorium is in period 7 and group 16, below polonium, with tellurium, selenium, sulfur and oxygen above. The electron configuration [Rn] 5f¹⁴ 6d¹⁰ 7s² 7p⁴ is a prediction too, with 6 valence electrons: two in the 7s and four in the 7p orbital. The atomic mass entry, 293 u, is the mass number of livermorium-293. No measured values for melting point, boiling point or density exist.
Group 16 shows the familiar change from non-metals to metals: oxygen, sulfur and selenium are non-metals, while polonium is a metal. For livermorium a metal is therefore expected, solid at room temperature, with a melting point of several hundred degrees Celsius. These are results of calculations.
As with its neighbours flerovium and moscovium, relativistic effects push the 7p electrons apart: two sit deep and tight, two further out. Livermorium should therefore form mainly the oxidation state plus two. The state plus four, important for polonium, should hardly matter. Bonds to hydrogen and to halogens should also be weaker than in the lighter members of the group. There are no measurements, because the lifetime of the atoms has so far not been long enough for chemical experiments.
Research and synthesis
Livermorium serves research only. Its isotopes are a testing ground for nuclear models: with rising neutron number the half-lives broadly grow, as the models expect.
In more recent experiments Dubna took a step into new territory. Chromium-54 served as the projectile instead of calcium-48, with uranium-238 as the target, and a previously unknown livermorium isotope resulted. Such experiments are groundwork for elements 119 and 120, which need other projectiles.
Livermorium isotopes also arise in the decay of oganesson. Its nucleus emits an alpha particle after less than a millisecond, and the livermorium atom is the second link of the chain.
Applications do not exist. Safety questions concern only the accelerators and the radioactive targets, not the single atoms.
Quick question
What is the atomic number of livermorium (Lv)?
FAQ
What is livermorium named after?
After the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, which took part in the discovery. The name was fixed in 2012.
How long does livermorium live?
Only fractions of a second. For livermorium-293 the literature quotes a half-life of a few tens of milliseconds, and other isotopes decay faster still. A visible sample will never exist.
Is livermorium similar to polonium?
Its place in group 16 suggests so. Calculations predict differences, though, above all a stronger preference for the state plus two. None of it has been measured.