Livermorium
post transition metalProperties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Atomic Mass | 293 amu |
| Category | post transition metal |
| Group | 16 |
| Period | 7 |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 7p4 |
| Oxidation States | 4, 2, -2 |
| Discovered By | Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2000) |
About Livermorium
Livermorium is element 116, named for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which collaborated with the Dubna group in Russia on the synthesis. The 2000 discovery used a hot fusion reaction — calcium-48 ions slammed into a curium-248 target — and the team identified Lv from the alpha-decay chain of its daughters rather than from any direct chemical signal. The longest-lived isotope known, Lv-293, hangs around for about 53 milliseconds before alpha-decaying to flerovium-289. Sitting under polonium in the chalcogen column, Lv should formally be a heavier oxygen analog, but theory says relativistic stabilization of the 7p₁/₂ orbital splits the 7p shell into two groups and locks four electrons into a closed-subshell core. If that prediction holds, Lv would behave less like a chalcogen and more like a noble metal — more volatile, less reactive, with the -2 state suppressed. Nobody has measured this yet because no one has produced enough atoms to do gas-phase chromatography on it.
Fun Fact
Livermorium exists for less than a tenth of a second before decaying — in that brief flicker of time, it produces a cascade of alpha particles that scientists use like a fingerprint to confirm they have created the right element.
Common Uses
- Probing the chalcogen column under relativistic conditions
- Alpha-decay-chain anchor for confirming flerovium and copernicium
- Cross-section measurements for hot-fusion synthesis routes
- Testing predictions of 7p subshell splitting
- No commercial applications