Rutherfordium

Rutherfordium was named after Ernest Rutherford. It was reported that it was first made in 1964 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, Russia. The scientists reported that they bombarded a different chemical element ²⁴²Pu with the element ²²Ne. The neon-22 particles were accelerated to an energy of 113 to 115 MeV. They claim they detected nuclear fission tracks in a special type of glass with a microscope showing that a new element was there.

In 1969 scientists at the University of California, Berkeley made rutherfordium by banging together ²⁴⁹Cf and ¹²C at very high energies. These scientists said that when they tried to make rutherfordium in the same way as the scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research none of the element was produced.

The scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research claimed that it was first detected in Dubna. They thought it should be named dubnium (Db) or kurchatovium (Ku) for Igor Vasilevich Kurchatov (1903-1960).

The scientists at the University of California, Berkeley thought it should be named rutherfordium (Rf).

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) decides the name of elements that should be used by everyone. They used unnilquadium (Unq) as a temporary name. Unnilquadium is the systematic element name meaning "one-zero-four" in Latin. In 1997 they resolved the dispute and used the current name of rutherfordium. The chemical element with atomic number 105 was named dubnium.

• Periodic table
• List of common elements

• Los Alamos National Laboratory Rutherford Archived 2006-02-16 at the Wayback Machine

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rutherfordium.

• WebElements.com - Rutherfordium