Tennessine
halogenProperties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Atomic Mass | 294 amu |
| Category | halogen |
| Group | 17 |
| Period | 7 |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 7p5 |
| Oxidation States | 5, 3, 1, -1 |
| Discovered By | Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2010) |
About Tennessine
Tennessine exists because Oak Ridge can make berkelium and Dubna can fire calcium-48 at it. The synthesis route — ²⁴⁹Bk(²⁴⁸Cm,xn) followed by α-decay chains — needed 22 mg of ²⁴⁹Bk that took about 250 days of HFIR irradiation to grow, plus a fast hand-off because berkelium-249 itself decays with a 330-day half-life. After shipping the target to Russia and bombarding for months, the experiment yielded six atoms in 2010. It sits in group 17 by electron count, but calling it a halogen oversells the family resemblance: relativistic contraction of the 7s shell and spin-orbit splitting of 7p into 7p₁/₂ and 7p₃/₂ are predicted to push Ts toward semi-metallic behavior, with a likely positive electron affinity but nothing like the reactive gas chemistry of fluorine or chlorine. The longest-lived isotope so far, ²⁹⁴Ts, lasts about 51 ms before α-decay, which is why no bulk property has ever been measured.
Fun Fact
Creating tennessine required a team spanning three countries and two continents — the berkelium target was made in Tennessee, shipped to Russia, bombarded with calcium ions for 150 days, and yielded a grand total of six atoms.
Common Uses
- Test case for relativistic-DFT predictions of 7p-block chemistry
- Probe of the predicted island of stability around N = 184
- Decay-chain end-member for confirming superheavy nuclide identities
- Benchmark target for hot-fusion reactions with ⁴⁸Ca beams
- Reference point for asking whether group-17 character survives in period 7
- No commercial applications