Darmstadtium is a synthetic, radioactive, and extremely unstable element with atomic number 110. It is chemically similar to platinum and is only used in scientific research due to its extreme instability. It was discovered in 1994 and named after the site of its discovery, Darmstadt, Germany.
Darmstadtium is a metallic chemical element classified among the transactinide elements in the periodic table of the elements, placing it among the heaviest known elements. Like other transactinides, darmstadtium is radioactive and extremely unstable. It is not found in nature, due to its extreme instability, and is instead created synthetically in scientific laboratories. Since only a few atoms of this element are created at a time, no commercial uses have been developed for darmstadtium.
This element is extremely short-lived, typically decaying into more stable elements within minutes. This makes darmstadtium very difficult to study, as it is difficult to make observations of just a few atoms of an element that exist for a minute, at most. Darmstadtium is believed to be chemically similar to platinum, and is therefore sometimes known as eka-platinum. It is identified by the symbol Ds on the periodic table of elements and has atomic number 110.
In addition to being known as a transactinide element, darmstadtium is also classified as a transuranium element. Transuranic elements are heavy elements with an atomic number higher than that of uranium. They share a number of chemical traits that make them interesting and challenging to study.
This element was identified in 1994 by a team of researchers from the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, based in Darmstadt, Germany. The team was led by Peter Armbruster and Sigurd Hofmann, and they managed to create element 110 by bombarding an isotope of lead with an isotope of nickel. Following the publication of their discovery, the element was temporarily named ununnilium by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) until the team proposed “darmstadtium” as the name for the new element, honoring the site of its discovery; this name was recognized in 2003.
Like other elements that can only be observed by being created synthetically, this element is only used in scientific research. Researchers create darmstadtium atoms in the lab in hopes of learning more about the element and perhaps discovering more stable isotopes that could be used for further study. Research budgets for working with heavy elements such as darmstadtium tend to be very large, as the equipment involved is complex and quite expensive.
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