Dubnium

Dubnium (pronounced /ˈduːbniəm/, DOOB-nee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Db and atomic number 105. This is a radioactive synthetic element whose most stable isotope is Db with a half life of 28 hours. An element of with a half-life as long as this would be much easier to work with, than some other elements such as Element 118 which has a half-life of 3 milliseconds. This is the longest lived transactinide isotope and is a reflection of... more

Dubnium (pronounced /ˈduːbniəm/, DOOB-nee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Db and atomic number 105. This is a radioactive synthetic element whose most stable isotope is Db with a half life of 28 hours. An element of with a half-life as long as this would be much easier to work with, than some other elements such as Element 118 which has a half-life of 3 milliseconds. This is the longest lived transactinide isotope and is a reflection of the stability of the Z = 108 and N = 162 closed shells and the effect of odd particles in nuclear decay. Chemistry experiments have provided sufficient evidence to confidently place dubnium in group 5 of the Periodic Table. Element 105 was first reported by Russian scientists, in 1968-1970 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. The 1968 work was based on the detection of correlated decays of element 105 to known daughter nuclei using the reaction Am(Ne,xn). They reported a 9.40 MeV and a 9.70 MeV alpha-activity and... less