US EPA

1753896 

Journal Article 

Chemical properties of element 106 (seaborgium) 

Schadel, M; Bruchle, W; Dressler, R; Eichler, B; Gaggeler, HW; Gunther, R; Gregorich, KE; Hoffman, DC; Hubener, S; Jost, DT; Kratz, JV; Paulus, W; Schumann, D; Timokhin, S; Trautmann, N; Turler, A 

1997 

1 

Nature
ISSN: 0028-0836
EISSN: 1476-4687 

388 

6637 

55-57 

WOS:A1997XJ14300047 

The synthesis, via nuclear fusion reactions, of elements
heavier than the actinides, allows one to probe the limits of the periodic table as a means of
classifying the elements. In particular, deviations in the periodicity of chemical properties for
the heaviest elements are predicted as a consequence of increasingly strong relativistic effects
on the electronic shell structure(1-7). The transactinide elements have now been extended up to
element 112 (ref. 8), but the chemical properties have been investigated only for the first two
of the transactinide elements, 104 and 105 (refs 9-19). Those studies showed that relativistic
effect render these two elements chemically different from their lighter homologues in the same
columns of the periodic table (Fig. 1). Here we report the chemical separation of element 106
(seaborgium, Sg) and investigations of its chemical behaviour in the gas phase and in aqueous
solution. The methods that we use are able to probe the reactivity of individual atoms, and based
on the detection of just seven atoms of seaborgium we find that it exhibits properties
characteristic of the group 6 homologues molybdenum and tungsten. Thus seaborgium appears to
restore the trends of the periodic table disrupted by relativistic effects in elements 104 and
105.