Ununbium

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Ununbium is a chemical element. It is also named eka-mercury. It has the symbol Uub. It has the atomic number 112. It is a transuranium element.

Using periodic trends people think that it will be a liquid metal. It is likely to be more volatile than mercury.

[edit] History

Ununbium was first made on February 9, 1996 at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. Ununbium was made by nuclear fusion of a zinc atom with a lead atom. The zinc nuclei was bombarded on to a lead target in a machine named a heavy ion accelerator.

The element was made in 2000 and 2004 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia.

In May 2006 in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research checked that it had been made using a different method. They identified the last atoms that were made from radioactive decay of ununbium.

[edit] Name

Ununbium is a temporary IUPAC systematic element name.

Some chemists think that it is likely that the discoverers will suggest that it is named helmholtzium with symbol Hh. This would be a name for the HGF consortium. HGF is the acronym for the Hermann von Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren. It is an association of centers for national research. Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung is part of HGF. Another suggestion is wixhausium with symbol Wi for the Wixhausen district of Darmstadt.

[edit] External links

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