Nobelium Facts

Nobelium is a chemical element that belongs to the actinide series of the periodic table and is placed between mendelevium and lawrencium. From its position in the periodic table, you know that it is a rare earth element. Like any other members of the actinide series, this is also a synthetic or man-made element. In other words, it is not naturally found on the surface of the earth and is produced artificially in laboratory. In chemistry, it is denoted with the symbol No.

History of Nobelium

In 1957, a team of scientists working at the Nobel Institute in Sweden claimed that they have synthesized the element nobelium. They had bombarded curium with carbon nuclei to obtain nobelium. They even went on to propose the name nobelium (No) for their newly discovered element. Later on, they withdrew their claim. Again, in 1958, another team of physicists comprising Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, John R. Walton and Torborn Sikkeland from University of California at Berkeley produced nobelium by bombarding curium with carbon ions. However, they could not confirm the reports of the claim made by the scientists of Nobel Institute Sweden but they adopted the name and the symbol of the chemical element proposed by them. In recent times, in 1992, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has given the credit for discovering this element to the scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia who discovered it much later in the year 1966. According to IUPAC, the Dubna scientists gave a confirmed identification of the element. For this reason, they have been accredited for the discovery of nobelium.

Facts About Nobelium

Like its history, there are some interesting facts about this element. A few quick facts are as follows:

• The element nobelium got its name from renowned Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel who discovered dynamite and established prestigious Nobel Prizes in chemistry and various other fields. Even though the Dubna scientists proposed the name Joliotium with the symbol Jo for their discovery, IUPAC retained the original name nobelium (No) as a mark of respect to the famous scientist Alfred Nobel. Sometimes, it is also referred to as unnilbium.
• The atomic number of nobelium is 102. As its atomic number is greater than 92, it is categorized as a transuranic element. Its electron configuration is 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 8, 2.
• Most of this element's facts related to its chemical properties are based upon various research studies. As its outermost shell has 2 electrons, it tends to release those electrons to form a divalent ion in solution form. Occasionally, it is also known to have trivalent ions.
• Nobelium is a radioactive metallic element with an extremely unstable nuclei. It has as many as seventeen known radioisotopes. Among them, the most stable isotope is 259-No which has a half life period of 58 minutes only.
• As it has volatile characteristics, not much information is available about physical properties of nobelium. Even the physical appearance of the element is not clearly known. It is believed that it is likely to have a silvery-white or gray color. Unconfirmed reports of various research studies show that it has a melting point of 827°C.
• Element Nobelium is obtained from decaying of heavier elements like lawrencium, hassium, rutherfordium and seaborgium. Due to its high radioactivity, only a few atoms of this element are prepared.

So far, there is no known uses of this element except for some important research work. This synthetic element does not have any biological role either. As nobelium properties are radioactive in nature, it is considered as hazardous and has to be handled with great care.