berkelium
Sign in to saveBerkelium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Bk and atomic number 97. It is a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory) where it was discovered in December 1949. Berkelium was the fifth transuranium element discovered after neptunium, plutonium, curium and americium.
AI overview
Berkelium is a human-made chemical element created in 1949 at a laboratory in Berkeley, California, and is part of a special group of heavy elements called actinides. Although it's quite rare and primarily of scientific interest, berkelium represents an important milestone in physics research as the fifth new element scientists synthesized beyond uranium.
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Article
22 sectionsContents
- Characteristics
- Physical
- Allotropes
- Chemical
- Isotopes
- Occurrence
- History
- Synthesis and extraction
- Preparation of isotopes
- Separation
- Bulk metal preparation
- Compounds
- Oxides
- Halides
- Other inorganic compounds
- Organoberkelium compounds
- Applications
- Nuclear fuel cycle
- Health issues
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
Berkelium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Bk and atomic number 97. It is a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory) where it was discovered in December 1949. Berkelium was the fifth transuranium element discovered after neptunium, plutonium, curium and americium.
The major isotope of berkelium, 249Bk, is synthesized in minute quantities in dedicated high-flux nuclear reactors, mainly at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, United States, and at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Russia. The longest-lived and second-most important isotope, 247Bk, can be synthesized via irradiation of 244Cm with high-energy alpha particles.