Rutherfordium is a chemical element that is classified as a transition metal. It is one of the 104 elements on the periodic table.
The chemical properties of rutherfordium are not well known. However, it has similar basic properties to other group 4 elements.
The atom has one hundred four protons and two electrons. Rutherfordium’s ion has a positive charge. The atomic radius of the rutherfordium atom is 157pm.
Rutherfordium is a very radioactive element that is produced by nuclear bombardment. Typically, its isotopes have very short half lives. Most of the isotopes have half-lives of less than a month. Those isotopes are unstable and may decay through several different radioactive decay pathways.
During the 1960s, scientists in the Soviet Union and the United States produced rutherfordium. The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia first reported production of the element in 1964. Their research team believed that they had produced four free neutrons. In 1969, American scientists used a different technique to produce the element. They discovered additional information about rutherfordium and confirmed their discovery in 1973.
Rutherfordium is a solid at room temperature. However, it has a very short half-life, so it will not last very long in a liquid.
Rutherfordium’s name comes from physicist Ernest Rutherford, who was born in New Zealand. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Scientists have not found much useful information about rutherfordium outside of the lab. However, a chemistry experiment has shown that it behaves in a manner similar to heavier hafnium homologs.
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