Copernicium
Copernicium (formerly Ununbium) is a chemical element in the Periodic Table. It is also named eka-mercury. It has the symbol Cn. It has the atomic number 112. It is a transuranium element.
The element is named in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus.
Using periodic trends, people think that it will be a liquid metal like mercury. It is likely to be more volatile than mercury however.
History
Copernicium was first made on February 9, 1996 at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. Copernicium was made by nuclear fusion of a zinc atom with a lead atom. The zinc nuclei was bombarded on to a lead target in a machine named a heavy ion accelerator.
The element was made in 2000 and 2004 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia.
In May 2006 in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research checked that it had been made using a different method. They identified the last atoms that were made from radioactive decay of copernicium.
In February 2010 IUPAC officially approved the name copernicium and symbol Cn.
Due to its short half-life it has no use but is being studied
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