Did you know about 112th element?

In 1996, on February the 9th,at 22:37 was discovered a new element - it was named Copernicium (labeled Cp) in honour to the famous scientist and astronomer - Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) at the GSI in Darmstadt, Germany.

Isolation

only a few atoms of element 112 have ever been made (through a nuclear reaction involving fusing a zinc atom with a lead atom)

Unfortunately, because of the unstability of this element won't be maybe ever created a visible amout of this material

reaction:

²⁰⁸Pb + ⁷⁰Zn → ²⁷⁷Cp + ¹n

Cn atoms decompose through the emission of a-particles with half-life of only 240 microseconds.

In Center of Heavy Ion Research in Germany were two decay chains of the isotope 277-112 observed in irradiations of 208-Pb targets with 70-Zn projectiles of 343.8 MeV kinetic energy. The isotope decays by emission of alpha particles with a half-life of (240 +430 -90) micro seconds. Two different alpha-energies of (11,649+-20)keV and (11,454+-20) keV) were measured for the decaying nuclei. The cross section measured in three weeks of irradiation is (1.0 +1.3 -0.6) pb.



 Well, some recent research showed stabilizing 113th and 115th elements in accelerators, but the discovery hasn't been confirmed and named yet. Scientist's yearning and searching for 'superheavy' and 'superstable' element go on...