In 1996, man-made copernicium came to life at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory in Darmstadt, Germany. Like smashing pieces of clay together to make a new color, a team of scientists used a heavy ion accelerator to fuse zinc-70 with lead-208. The fusion was achieved by bombarding lead with zinc atoms traveling at 30,000 km per second, and the result was a single atom of copernicium-277.
Copernicium
112
285
Cn
Copernicium
Element Stats
Physical
| Property | Value | Property | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appearance | Appearance unknown; only a few atoms have ever been produced | ||
| Classification | Uncategorized Super Heavies | Density | 14 g/cm³, predicted |
| Boiling Point | 340 ± 10 K, predicted | Melting Point | 283 ± 11 K, predicted |
Atomic
| Property | Value | Property | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atomic Number | 112 | Atomic Mass | 285 |
| Van Der Waals Radius | -- | Atomic Radius (empirical) | 147, predicted |
Electronic & Chemical
| Property | Value | Property | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electronegativity | -- | Electron Affinity | -- |
| Electron Configuration | 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 4p6 5s2 4d10 5p6 6s2 4f14 5d10 6p6 7s2 5f14 6d10 | ||
| Oxidation States | 2, (1), 0 — (predicted) | ||
| Ionization Energies | Showing all 5 ionization energies.
| ||
History
Properties
Copernicium is considered one of the heaviest elements and is a highly radioactive metal. One of its most interesting properties is its short lifespan—the first production of Copernicium-277 decayed in just .24 milliseconds! Copernicium’s most stable isotope has an atomic weight of 285 and a half-life of 34 seconds.
Uses
This element has no uses beyond scientific research because it decays so quickly.
Sources
Copernicium has only been created in lab settings and is not known to exist in nature.
Fun Facts
What's in a name?
Copernicium’s name was chosen to honor Nicolaus Copernicus, the renaissance-era astronomer who proposed the heliocentric model of the universe suggesting that planets revolve around the sun.
Liquid vibes
If copernicium existed in nature, it would be liquid, like mercury!