Darmstadt is a quiet university town in Germany. But its Heavy Ion Research Center GSI has discovered six chemical elements — a world record. Element 110 is one of them. In 1994, lead was fused with nickel, producing the first atom of darmstadtium, which survived only microseconds. Theory predicts darmstadtium is a noble metal, a cousin of platinum. But relativistic effects may make it even more inert than gold.
Darmstadtium was discovered by the team of Sigurd Hofmann and Peter Armbruster in 1994. They used 'cold fusion' — bombarding lead-208 with nickel-62 ions. The method yielded just one atom, but that was enough.
Darmstadtium's chemical properties have not yet been studied experimentally. Theory predicts it should behave like platinum, but relativistic effects may make it unique among group 10 elements.
Darmstadtium is extremely radioactive and exists only seconds. It's synthesized a few atoms at a time in accelerators. It poses no practical threat.
GSI in Darmstadt holds the world record among labs: six elements discovered here (107-112). No other laboratory can claim that many discoveries.
Darmstadtium may be even more inert than gold. Relativistic effects compress electron shells so strongly that the atom barely interacts with others.
The first atom of darmstadtium existed only microseconds. Now the most stable isotope Ds-281 lives about 11 seconds — a huge improvement.
Darmstadt is a German city known for more than element 110. The chemist Justus Liebig once lived here — the scientist who revolutionized organic chemistry and agrochemistry.
Darmstadtium was discovered using 'cold fusion' — a method where nuclei merge with minimal excitation energy. It's like gently 'gluing' two nuclei together instead of smashing them into each other.
| Isotope | Mass (u) | Abundance | Half-life | Decay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
269Ds☢ | 269.144750 | synthetic | 179 μs | α |
281Ds☢ | 281.164510 | synthetic | 9.6 seconds | SF |
Linear accelerator bombardment of lead