Mendelevium
Atomic Number: 101
Mendelevium is the 101st element in the periodic table and it the third last of the actinide family. It is a metallic radioactive transuranic element. It is the first element by atomic number that currently cannot be produced in macroscopic quantities through neutron bombardment of lighter elements. In other words, it is also the last element that can be seen with the naked eye. It has an unknown color, but is probably silver. Mendelevium has no uses other than research and it has no known biological role. That is due to only a few atoms have ever been created. Mendelevium isn't found in nature, but is made artificially. It has 16 know isotopes with mass numbers 245 to 260. The most stable isotope of mendelevium is mendelevium-258 which has a half-life of about 51.5 days. It decays into einsteinium-254 through alpha decay (the release of alpha particles). They are produced through charged-particles of lighter elements in particle accelerators. This element was discovered by Albert Ghiorso and Glenn T. Seaborg in 1955. It was named after the person that made the periodic table and predicted elements within it, Dmitri Mendeleev. |
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