Flerovium
Post-transition metal · Period 7 · Group 14 · p-block
A volatile metal near the long-sought island of stability
- Atomic mass
- 289 u
- State at 25 °C
- Solid
- Electronegativity
- —
- Melting point
- 66.9 °Cpredicted
- Boiling point
- 146.9 °Cpredicted
- Configuration
- *[Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 7p2
Nucleus drawn at reduced count for clarity. Drag to rotate.
Flerovium, explained
Video lesson in production
Bhavya’s explainer for this element will play here.
Overview
Flerovium is in group 14 below carbon, silicon, germanium, tin and lead, with the configuration 7s2 7p2. Both of its outer p electrons sit in the 7p1/2 orbital, which relativistic spin-orbit splitting makes a closed sub-shell. That gives flerovium a partly noble-gas-like character, and for years chemists debated whether it would behave as a metal like lead or as an inert, volatile element.
Gas-phase experiments at Dubna, PSI and GSI tested this using flerovium atoms flowing over gold and quartz surfaces. Results published in 2022 from GSI showed flerovium is a volatile metal: it binds to gold more weakly than lead does but still forms a metal-metal bond, making it the least reactive member of group 14. Flerovium also sits near proton number 114, once predicted to be a magic number at the center of the island of stability.
Discovery
Yuri Oganessian's team at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, working with Lawrence Livermore, bombarded plutonium-244 with calcium-48 in late 1998 and reported element 114 in 1999. Later experiments confirmed several flerovium isotopes. IUPAC credited the collaboration in 2011, and the name flerovium was approved in 2012, honoring the laboratory and its founder, Georgy Flerov, who discovered spontaneous fission of uranium in 1940.
- Where it’s found
- Flerovium does not occur in nature; it is made by bombarding plutonium targets with calcium-48 ions or as a decay product of livermorium.
- What it’s used for
- Superheavy chemistry studies
- Island of stability research
- Relativistic effects research
- Testing group 14 predictions
- In living things
- Flerovium has no biological role; it is radioactive and has only ever existed as individual atoms.
- Safety
- Radioactive and made only a few atoms at a time; it decays within seconds.
How it compares
Where Flerovium sits among all 118 elements on the trends that shape the table.
- ElectronegativityNo data
Not measured for this element
- Ionization energyNo data
Not measured for this element
- Atomic radiusNo data
Not measured for this element
- Electron affinityNo data
Not measured for this element
- Density14g/cm³
#23 of 114 elements with data · predicted
- Melting point340K
#90 of 110 elements with data · predicted
- Density
- 14 g/cm³
- Atomic radius
- —
- Covalent radius
- —
- Molar heat
- —
- Appearance
- —
- Discovered by
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
Inside the atom
114 electrons arranged in 7 shells: 2 · 8 · 18 · 32 · 32 · 18 · 4.
Orbital diagram
1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 4p6 5s2 4d10 5p6 6s2 4f14 5d10 6p6 7s2 5f14 6d10 7p2 · shorthand *[Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 7p2
- 1s2
- 2s2
- 2p6
- 3s2
- 3p6
- 4s2
- 3d10
- 4p6
- 5s2
- 4d10
- 5p6
- 6s2
- 4f14
- 5d10
- 6p6
- 7s2
- 5f14
- 6d10
- 7p2
Each box is an orbital holding up to two electrons of opposite spin. Highlighted subshells hold the valence electrons that decide how Flerovium bonds.
Signature reactions
How the first atoms were made, and how they fall apart.
Nuclear · Hot fusion
Dubna hot-fusion synthesis
Calcium-48 fuses with plutonium-244 and three neutrons evaporate. The extra neutrons in this combination yield more neutron-rich, longer-lived isotopes than cold fusion with lead targets.
Conditions: calcium-48 beam on plutonium-244, Dubna U400 cyclotron
Nuclear · Alpha decay
Alpha decay of flerovium-289
Flerovium-289 emits an alpha particle to become copernicium-285, which lives about 30 seconds before decaying further. Chains like this one tie each new isotope to previously known nuclides.
Conditions: spontaneous, half-life about 2 seconds
Nuclear · Hot fusion
Alternative plutonium-242 route
With a lighter plutonium target and four neutrons evaporated, the reaction gives flerovium-286. Isotopes with mass numbers 284 to 289 are now known, which allows experiments to compare how half-life changes with neutron number.
Conditions: calcium-48 beam on plutonium-242
Where you’ll meet it
Georgy Flerov
The Soviet physicist who founded Dubna's nuclear reactions laboratory is honored by element 114.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Lead
Lead, directly above flerovium in group 14, binds to gold more strongly than flerovium does.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Island of stability
Element 114 was long predicted to sit at the center of this region of longer-lived superheavy nuclei.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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Research
No research on Flerovium yet
When Bhavya publishes a project that studies Flerovium, it will be linked here.