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Meitnerium is a highly unstable and radioactive metallic element that cannot be found in nature and must be synthesized in a lab. It is classified as a transactinide and transuranium element, with an atomic number of 109. Meitnerium is chemically similar to iridium and was discovered in 1982 by German scientists who named it after Lise Meitner, a pioneer in heavy element research and nuclear fission.
Meitnerium is a metallic chemical element classified among the transactinides of the periodic table of elements. Like other transactinide elements, meitnerium is among the heaviest chemical elements and is extremely unstable and radioactive. Because this element is so unstable, it cannot be found in nature; researchers who wish to work with it must synthesize it in the laboratory by bombarding other elements in a linear accelerator. Since only a few atoms of this element can be produced at a time, there are no commercial uses for meitnerium.
In addition to being classified as a transactinide, meitnerium is also considered a transuranium element, meaning that it has a higher atomic number than uranium. The existence of such elements has been hypothesized since at least the 1930s, with numerous physicists spending considerable time locating such elements. Transuranium elements are notoriously unstable, however, making them difficult to study as they rapidly decay into more stable elements; very precise scientific equipment is needed to record their presence during their short existence.
The chemical properties of meitnerium aren’t really known, as it only exists for a few milliseconds at a time in the lab. It is believed to be chemically similar to iridium, leading some people to refer to it as eka-iridium. The element is identified by the symbol Mt on the periodic table and has an atomic number of 109.
Credit for the discovery of element 109 goes to a team of German scientists, led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfrief Munzenburg. Researchers identified meitnerium in Darmstadt, Germany in 1982 after bombarding bismuth with iron. They proposed the name “meitnerium” for the element, in honor of the well-known Austrian scientist Lise Meitner; this name was accepted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in 1997.
Lise Meitner is an interesting historical figure, as like many women in science, her contributions to the scientific community were not always recognized during her lifetime. She was an early pioneer working with heavy elements and was a member of the German science team that discovered nuclear fission. Meitner was also Jewish, and has been criticized in retrospect for failing to act during the rise of Nazi Germany; she expressed deep regret in 1946 that she had not made efforts on behalf of the Jewish community during her stay in Germany.
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