PSILOGO

Laboratory for Particle Physics (LTP)


LTP Colloquium

Gas Phase Chemistry with the Elements Hs and 112

Thursday, December 14, 2006, 16:00
WHGA Auditorium

R. Eichler, PSI

Abstract:
The chemical properties of the heaviest elements are expected to be strongly influenced by relativistic effects in their electron structure. These effects may limit the applicability of the laws of periodicity depicted in the periodic table to heaviest elements. Since 1999 the formation of about 30 new nuclides of super heavy elements - transactinides - in the nuclear fusion reactions of Ca-48 with actinide targets was reported at FLNR Dubna. Some of the observed isotopes, e.g. of element 112 and 114, have half-lives in the order of some seconds. Therefore, these elements can be studied chemically. The In-situ Volatilization and On-line technique (IVO) was developed in combination with the Cryo-On-Line Detector (COLD) at PSI for the gas phase chemical investigation of short-lived volatile species. Here, we show how this technique was successfully applied for the first chemical investigation of Hassium and the super heavy element 112.