Bohrium

Bohrium Details

Bohrium Symbol: Bh

Bohrium Atomic Number: 107

Bohrium Atomic Weight: (270)

What is Bohrium?

Bohrium is a chemical element with symbol Bh and atomic number 107. This artificial chemical element is radioactive and does not occur naturally. Currently, element 107's melting and boiling points are unknown to scientists, so is its density and other properties. Classified as metal by the element classification system, unnilseptium takes solid state at room temperature. The most stable isotope of unnisleptium is Bh-270 which has a half life of approximately one minute. While there are no stable isotopes, the most stable ones are Bh-267, Bh-270, Bh-271, and Bh-274. All isotopes have a half life of 1 second up to 1 minute. The element is produced in lab settings by using chromium-54 to bombard bismuth-209.

Although the chemical and physical properties of element 107 are still only partially known, it is believed that it works well with other elements of Group 7 of the Periodic Table. The element’s official name as per IUPAC is bohrium. It has a hexagonal close-packed structure and is classified as a transition metal. This is a heavy metal which is believed to be steel gray in color.

Discovery and Naming
Official discovery of bohrium or unnilseptium happened in 1981, by a German team of scientists at the Institute of Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. The team was led by well-known German scientists Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Munzenberg – responsible for the discovery of other synthetic chemical elements, object of naming and founding controversy; temporary name - Unnilseptium - Uns.

The German team who were credited by IUPAC as the official discoverers of unnilseptium proposed that element 107 should be called nielsbohrium, symbol Ns, in honour of Danish particle physicist Niels Bohr.

The Russians on the other hand, wanted the name nielsbohrium to be given to element 105. IUPAC did actually rename element 105 to dubnium in recognition of the Soviet scientists. This made element 107 nielsbohrium once again. This time around, the Russian science team did not object to the name, as they were happy with the name given to element 105 (dubnium). Eventually, the Danish IUPAC agreed on the name bohrium. Official renaming of element 107 to bohrium took place in 1997.

Applications
At this stage, there are no known uses or applications of unilseptium, in part because only a miniscule amount of the element has ever been synthesized. However, in 1995, an attempt was made to isolate element 107, though it was unsuccessful. Half a decade later, in the year two thousand, a team of scientists experimenting with unilseptium concluded it was a typical example of Group 7 period element. Currently, the only known application of unilseptium is in basic laboratory experimentation. The element's electron shell configuration is still unconfirmed.

Health Risks and Environmental Hazards
Because it decomposes rapidly, the element has no biological role, and there is no reason to believe it is an environmental hazard. At high concentrations, it can be unsafe due to its radioactivity.

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