Seaborgium

Seaborgium Details

Seaborgium Symbol: Sg

Seaborgium Atomic Number: 106

Seaborgium Atomic Weight: (271)

What is Seaborgium?

Seaborgium is a synthetic element with symbol Sg and atomic number 106 also known by its temporary name Unnilhexium or Unh. Seaborgium comprises of a number of isotopes, some more stable than others. At this stage, certain characteristics of this synthetic element are still unknown, others however have been observed and recorded.

Chemical and Physical Properties
Seaborgium has an atomic weight of 271. Its melting and boiling point are still unknown and so is its density. The element is in a solid phase when kept at room temperature. Sg is metal as per its element classification. Its period number is 6, and its group number is 7. It has no specific period group name. This synthetic element is radioactive and artificially produced in controlled environment.

Isotopes
Seaborgium is made up of isotopes, and its most stable isotope is seaborgium-271 which has a half life of two point four minutes. The isotope decays into rutherfordium-267 through a process called alpha decay or it decays through naturally occurring fission.

Discovery and Isolation
The element is named after the scientist who first discovered it – Glenn Seaborg. The discovery of th? synthetic element is directly related to its naming. The first ever discovery was in 1974, by a team of scientists at the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research – a specialised facility in the former USSR.

In the summer of 74, the science team reported the discovery of element 106. A few months later, in the autumn of 1974, a synthesis of Unnihlexium was also reported by a team of researchers at the Super HILAC particle accelerator at the Lawrence/Berkley Laboratory. The team was led by scientists Albert Ghiorso and Kenneth Hulet.

In 1993, an official inquiry into the discovery of this element confirmed that the research team at Lawrence/Berkley were indeed the first ones to discover it. The American team which discovered the element, decided to name it in honour of the American chemist Glenn Seaborg who was actually responsible for the discovery of many other elements prior to this particular discovery, though he was also credited as part of the same research group which found Unh through synthesis. Naming the element stirred a fair bit of emotion and controversy in scientific societies in the US and the rest of the world. Bodies like IUPAC decided to use the name Unnil?exium as the element’s temporary systematic name. In 1994, the same organisation decided to rename Unh to Rutherfordium and adopted a rule of thumb that no element can be named after a living person. Naturally, the rule provoked a lot of controversy and objections from other scientific societies – after all einsteinium was in fact chosen as a name of another element, whilst the scientist was still alive.

Applications
In terms of use and application, Unh has still got no known uses as there were only a few atoms of the element ever generated. At this stage, Unh is only used in basic scientific research.

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