Cost: up to $5 per gram or $2000 per pound.
This is a seasonal fungus from the genus of marsupial fungi with an underground location of the fruiting body. Truffles are used to prepare a variety of dishes.
Cost: $11.13 per gram or $5040 per pound.
Saffron - flowering plant, whose dried stigmas with ancient times used as spice and orange food coloring. In addition, saffron is widely used in medicine in the treatment of various ailments, from depression to menstrual irregularities.
17. Iranian Beluga caviar
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: $35 per gram or $1,000 per ounce.
She is also known as Almas. Caviar is eaten cold, spread in small portions on unsalted crackers or bread.
16. Gold
Edible Gold
Cost: $39.81 per gram.
This expensive metal is valued not only in jewelry. Gold has a high electrical conductivity and is corrosion resistant.
15. Rhodium
en.wikipedia.org
Cost: $45 per gram or $1270 per ounce.
Rhodium is a noble metal of the platinum group with a silvery-white color. It is mainly used in car catalytic converters to reduce carbon emissions.
14. Platinum
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: $48 per gram or $1365 per ounce.
Platinum can be used as a catalyst in scientific experiments or for making jewelry. It is also included in the composition of anti-cancer drugs.
13. Rhino Horn
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: $55 per gram or $25,000 per pound.
There is a belief that rhinoceros horn even cures cancer. It is used in the manufacture of a potion intended to treat fevers and other ailments.
12. Creme de la Mer
Nordstrom
Cost: $70 per gram or $2,000 per ounce.
There are legends about this cosmetic product. They say that many celebrities daily apply this miracle cream to themselves in order to preserve their youth.
11. Heroin
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: Pure heroin can cost up to $110 per gram.
Heroin is an opioid drug. It is administered intravenously, sniffed or smoked, despite the fact that the substance can cause convulsions or coma.
10 Methamphetamine
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: $120 per gram or $1600 per ounce.
The drug causes a euphoric effect and is highly addictive. Methamphetamine is popular among teenagers.
9. Crack cocaine
Valerie Everett/Flickr
Cost: up to $600 per gram.
Crack is the crystalline form of cocaine, which is a mixture of cocaine salts with baking soda or other chemical base.
8. LSD
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: A crystalline form of LSD costs about $3,000 per gram.
It's a psychoactive substance hallucinatory. It was especially popular in the 1960s.
7. Plutonium
Cost: Approximately $4,000 per gram.
Plutonium is a radioactive metal. It is used in production nuclear weapons, fuel for nuclear reactors, as a source of energy for spacecraft.
6. Taaffeite
The Gem Trader
Cost: from $2,500 to $20,000 per gram or $2,400 per carat (1 carat = 0.2 grams)
Taaffeite is the rarest mineral lilac color. This gem is a million times rarer than diamonds. It is used in jewelry.
5. Tritium
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: $30,000 per gram.
Tritium is a superheavy hydrogen used in clock backlights and signage.
4. Diamonds
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: A colorless gemstone can cost $65,000 per gram or $13,000 per carat.
Most often, diamonds are used in jewelry.
3. Painite
Wikimedia Commons
Cost: $300,000 per gram or up to $60,000 per carat.
Painite is a mineral from the class of borates. It is considered the rarest of the minerals. Supporters traditional medicine sure that painite crystals successfully get rid of infectious diseases have a beneficial effect on digestion and circulation.
2. California
Wealthy people love to collect expensive cars, rare works of art, buy clothes from famous designers. Of course, their soul also lies in unique jewelry in order to replenish their arsenal with expensive gizmos.
Despite the fact that everyone is used to the fact that the most expensive pleasure is jewelry, in addition to gold and diamonds, there are a large number of other expensive substances in the world - from ordinary spices to complex chemical elements.
We invite you to look at these most expensive substances in the world known to modern mankind.
16 - Saffron - $11/gram
This is the most expensive spice in the world. It is harvested from the dried stigmas of saffron flowers. The high cost of saffron is justified by the fact that one flower gives only three stigmas, and in order to get one kilogram of this spice, 200 thousand of such flowers are needed.
15 - Gold - $56/ gram
Gold is a noble metal that is used in jewelry, industry and medicine. As of 2012, the total amount of gold ever mined in the world was estimated at 174,100 tons. But the value of gold is not only in its rarity, it is also valued for its properties, namely: it does not give in to corrosion, does not oxidize, has a high electrical conductivity and is easy to work with.
14
—
Platinum - $70/ gram
The value of platinum was not immediately recognized by mankind. Initially, it cost half as much as silver. And only with the use of platinum in chemical technologies, its value has increased many times over. IN pure form does not occur in nature, most often in alloys with other metals.
13 —Rhodium – $95/ gram
Rhodium is a noble metal of the platinum group with a silvery color with a bluish tint. Such a high cost is due to the fact that rhodium is the rarest element that does not have its own minerals. In terms of chemical resistance in most corrosive environments, it surpasses platinum.
12 — Meth – $100/ gram
methamphetamine is a psychostimulant with an extremely high potential for addiction, and therefore classified as a narcotic substance. It was used in the treatment of narcolepsy, psychogenic depression, alcoholic depressive psychosis and other diseases accompanied by drowsiness, lethargy, asthenia to temporarily eliminate the feeling of fatigue, increase physical and mental performance.
11 — Rhino Horn – $110/ gram
Rhinos are endangered and, first of all, this is due to the huge demand for their horns. The horn is of great value for bone carvers.Also it is used as medicine and included in the traditional Chinese recipes, including elixirs of longevity.
10 — Heroin – $130/ gram
Heroin is a semi-synthetic drug late XIX century - early XX, used as a medicine. Since 1971, heroin has been used legally in the world only in small quantities, in strictly controlled scientific research. Almost all the rest of the heroin produced in the world is used as a drug.
09 — Cocaine - $215/ gram
The main source of cocaine is the leaves of the coca bush. Initially, it was widely used for medical purposes, but by the beginning of the 20th century it was almost completely replaced from medical practice by more advanced drugs.
08 — * Lysergic acid diethylamide LSD* - $3000 / gram
LSD is a semi-synthetic psychoactive substance. LSD may be considered the best-known psychedelic, used as a recreational drug as well as a tool in various transcendental practices such as meditation, psychonautics, or legally prohibited (but legal in the past) psychedelic psychotherapy.
07 - Plutonium - $4,000/gram
First artificial chemical element, whose production began in industrial scale. Both enriched and natural uranium are used to produce plutonium. The total amount of plutonium stored in the world in various forms in 2010 was about 2000 tons. It is widely used in the production of nuclear weapons, nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors for civil and research purposes and as a source of energy for spacecraft.
06 - Painite - $9000/gram
Painite is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the rarest mineral. Until 2005, only about 25 minerals were found worldwide.. Only 330 authentic Painites are known worldwide.Several painites are in private collections, the rest of the crystals are distributed among museums.
05 - Taaffeite - $20,000/gram
It is believed that this lilac gemstone is a million times rarer than diamond, as a result of which taaffeite is used exclusively as precious stone. If you put together all the taaffeite found to date, it will hardly fill half the cup.
04 - Tritium - $30,000/gram
Tritium - radioactive isotope hydrogen. In nature, tritium is formed in the upper atmosphere when particles of cosmic radiation collide with the nuclei of atoms. World reserves of tritium in 2003 were only 18 kg.
03 - Diamonds - $55,000/gram
Diamond is a rare, but at the same time quite widespread mineral. A cut diamond (brilliant) has been the most popular and expensive gemstone for many decades. The exceptional hardness of diamond finds its application in industry: it is used for the manufacture of knives, drills, cutters and similar products.
02 - California 252 - $27M/ gram
Californium is extracted from the products of prolonged irradiation of plutonium with neutrons in a nuclear reactor. It is used as a powerful source of neutrons in neutron activation analysis, in radiation therapy of tumors. In addition, the 252 Cf isotope is used in experiments to study spontaneous nuclear fission.
01 - Antimatter - $6.25 trillion/gram
Antimatter is known to be the most expensive substance on Earth. The problem is that its production requires incredibly expensive technology, and to create just 1 gram, the whole world would have to work for a whole year (global GDP is 65 trillion dollars).
Due to the fact that when atoms of matter and antimatter collide, great amount energy, the invention of an efficient way to obtain and contain antimatter will be a real breakthrough in the energy and military industries, just like nuclear energy in the 20th century. It is hypothesized that it is possible to build an antimatter bomb that is compact enough to destroy an entire planet, or one reactor that can satisfy energy needs entire continents.
To the question Which chemical element is the rarest on Earth? given by the author chromosomes the best answer is Probably the rarest metal on earth is rhenium. It was discovered by Dmitry Mendeleev himself, because it was he who predicted the discovery of a substance characteristic of an atomic weight of 180. And for the next half century, many chemists hunted for this unknown element, but never announced victories were something expensive. And only in 1925, scientists Ida and Walter Noddak, subjects of Germany, discovered the rarest of all stable metals in the world. And they called it rhenium - in honor of the German river Rhine. This metal is valued more than platinum itself! Because without it, modern aircraft simply will not take off. The metal goes to the production of blades in the engine. He is also involved in the synthesis of gasoline with a high octane number and in the creation various equipment, for example, in hygroscopes. The technique, we note, is high-precision.
And until the early nineties, until 92, it was believed that there were no deposits of rhenium on earth. It was mined incidentally from molybdenum ores and copper deposits. So, no more than forty tons of this metal are produced per year worldwide. One kilogram of rhenium costs well over a thousand dollars. And the price for a kilogram of crude raw materials is $800. Rhenium is highly dispersed throughout the earth's crust, so much so that the clarke - the average content of rhenium in nature - is less than the clarke of any lanthanide or platinoid.
What is the rarest mineral on earth? Many immediately think of precious metals. Some are about diamond and its colored varieties. However, this is most likely the material from which this scarab is made: Libyan desert glass. These are small pieces of a light green or light yellow hue, sometimes they are transparent. They are composed almost entirely of silicon oxide and appear to have been formed at temperatures in excess of 2,000 degrees. The age is estimated at 28–30 million years.
The history of its formation is not fully understood. The most common theory is that a long time ago a huge meteorite crashed into the desert, or exploded directly above it. A crater formed from an impact of such force, the sand melted and the liquid mixture was scattered on large area. Due to the rapid cooling during the flight, the sand turned into glass. Over time, the wind and sand polished the pieces of glass to a shine.
As it becomes clear looking at the photograph, desert glass was valued as an ornament even in ancient egypt, and was valued very highly, since the pharaohs wore it. Sometimes it was found by caravans. It was scientifically described for the first time in 1932 by the researchers Claydon and Almashi (the pilot that served as the prototype for the hero of the English patient), who were looking for the legendary oasis of Tserzura in the desert. This glass is found in a small area on the border of Egypt and Libya, in the valleys sand dunes reaching 100 meters in height.
Answer from 22 answers[guru]
Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: What is the rarest chemical element on Earth?
Answer from Krab Bark[guru]
Plutonium, probably. It is formed all the time due to the decay of natural uranium, but in very small quantities. Therefore, it is obtained artificially.
P.S. You should probably not be asking about rare elements or natural elements, but about stable elements. Of the stable ones, rhenium is most likely the rarest. Yes, I looked at the unstable ones - of the unstable ones that occur during decays in nature, astatine is considered the rarest - Well, of the non-natural ones - the last of those obtained in the periodic table, they are literally obtained in accelerators by several atoms.
Answer from glorify[guru]
Antimatter is known to be the most expensive substance on Earth, with a 2006 NASA estimate costing roughly US$25 million to produce a milligram of positrons. One gram of antihydrogen would be worth $62.5 trillion, according to a 1999 estimate. According to a 2001 CERN estimate, the production of a billionth of a gram of antimatter (the volume used by CERN in particle-antiparticle collisions over ten years) cost several hundred million Swiss francs.
08.09.2014
A list of the 18 most expensive substances in the world that you might find useful. Suddenly, a pack of graphene falls out of someone's pocket, and you won't even know what it is. And most importantly - how much does it cost.
Let's start, as strange as it sounds, with the cheapest substance on this list - gold.
18. Gold - $56 per gram.
Gold has long been considered the most expensive thing on Earth. But its main value was that it could serve as a universal currency, liquid almost all over the world.
except traditional use in the jewelry industry, gold can be used as an electrical conductor and to prevent corrosion. Gold is very heavy metal: the density of pure gold is 19,621 kg/m? (a ball of pure gold with a diameter of 46 mm has a mass of 1 kg).
Among metals, it ranks sixth in density: after osmium, iridium, rhenium, platinum and plutonium. The high density of gold makes it easier to mine. The simplest technological processes, such as, for example, flushing at locks, can provide very a high degree extracting gold from washed rock.
17. Rhodium - About $58 per gram.
Rhodium is used primarily in catalytic converters to reduce car carbon emissions. This metal does not play any biological role.
Rhodium compounds are quite rare in Everyday life and their impact on human body not fully explored. Despite this, they are highly toxic and carcinogenic substances. Rhodium salts can strongly stain human skin.
16. Platinum - about $60 per gram.
Platinum and its alloys are widely used for the production jewelry. Every year, the world jewelry industry consumes about 50 tons of platinum. At present, about 10 million platinum products with a total weight of about 25 tons are sold annually in China.
Russian demand for platinum jewelry is 0.1% of the world level. Platinum, gold and silver are the main metals that perform a monetary function. However, platinum began to be used for making coins several millennia later than gold and silver.
The world's first platinum coins were issued and were in circulation in Russian Empire from 1828 to 1845. The largest existing in currently the platinum nugget is the "Ural Giant" weighing 7 kg 860.5 g. It was discovered in 1904 at the Isovsky mine. Now it is kept in the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin.
15. Methamphetamine - $100 per gram.
Methamphetamine hydrochloride was produced in the USSR until the 1970s in the form of 3 mg tablets under the name Pervitin.
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant with an extremely high additive potential, which is why it is widely used as a drug.
There are known cases of smoking methamphetamine hydrochloride crystals (“ice”, “ice”, “glass”), which are sometimes specially prepared for this purpose in the form of large crystals (rather than fine powder). This is the most additive application.
When properly dosed individually, methamphetamine reduces feelings of fatigue, induces a burst of energy, increases mental and physical performance, reduces the need for sleep, it allows you to work around the clock, which is often used by low-paid workers in Asia) and suppresses appetite.
14. Rhino Horn - $110 per gram
The horn is prized in Vietnam for its supposed ability to cure cancer. His medical application also includes the treatment of fevers and other illnesses.
If a rhinoceros horn is cut off or damaged, the animal will most likely not survive, but in young individuals it may grow back. No one knows what its real function is, although females in which the horn is removed, for some reason, completely stop looking after their offspring.
Rhinos are endangered, and this is primarily due to the huge demand for their horns. African rhinoceros horn is also highly valued in the Middle East, especially in Yemen, both for medical reasons and for traditional dagger hilts. Since 1970, 67,050 kg of rhinoceros horns have been imported into Yemen. With an average weight of 3 kg per horn, this means that 22,350 rhinos were killed.
13. Heroin - $131 per gram
High-quality heroin can cost up to $130 per gram. This opiate is injected, snorted and smoked to alter consciousness.
According to the data presented in the report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) - at the end of 2009, Russia ranks first in the world in terms of the amount of heroin consumed. On average, the country consumes about 80 tons of the drug per year, which is 20% of the amount of heroin consumed in the world. Physiochemical properties: Pure substance - white crystalline powder. The crude product is a bitterish, grayish-brown powder in the form of small crystals with an unpleasant odor.
12. Cocaine - $215 per gram
Cocaine - methyl ester benzoylecgonine, a tropane alkaloid, has a local anesthetic and narcotic effect.
Along with other alkaloids, it is found in plants of the genus Erythroxylum, in particular: Coca bush (Erythroxylum coca), Erythroxylum laetevirens, etc. Cocaine is the second, after opiates, "problem drug", a narcotic substance, the abuse of which is a significant socio-economic problem .
Currently, cocaine is the most commonly used drug.
The popularity of this narcotic substance due to its stimulating effect, improved mood and increased efficiency. By itself, cocaine does not have a pronounced taste and smell, organoleptic properties are provided by the impurities present in the mixture.
World consumption of cocaine is estimated by experts at approximately 750 tons per year, and about a third of this volume falls on the United States, which are the largest consumers of this drug.
11. LSD - $3,000 grams
In crystalline form, it costs about $3,000 per gram. psychoactive substance, is legally classified as a drug in Russia.
Like most similar drugs, LSD does not cause physical dependence. LSD is sensitive to oxygen, ultraviolet light, and chlorine (if we are talking about a solution), but in the dark, at low humidity and low temperature, it can be stored for many years.
In its pure form, LSD is colorless, odorless, and slightly bitter in taste. It is usually consumed orally, for example, using a small piece of paper (“stamp”) soaked in a solution of a substance, or a piece of sugar, or in the form of gelatin.
In liquid form, LSD can be taken in the form of drops (hence the English expression"drop the acid" - literally "drop acid") or is administered by intramuscular or intravenous injection.
10 Plutonium - $4,000
Plutonium is a heavy basic chemical element that owes its origin to " big bang" in the Universe.
Heavy brittle radioactive metal of silver-white color. IN periodic table is in the actinide family. It is widely used in the production of nuclear weapons, nuclear fuel for civil and research nuclear reactors, and as an energy source for spacecraft.
Plutonium was very often used in nuclear bombs. historical fact is reset nuclear bomb on Nagasaki in 1945 USA. The bomb dropped on this city contained 6.2 kg of plutonium. The power of the explosion was 21 kilotons.
9 Painite - $9,000
Painite is a representative of rare minerals. For many years there were only three of its crystals.
Until 2005, about 25 crystals were found, most of the rocks were found in Burma. Initially, many of the famous painite crystals were in private collections, and the rest were divided between british museum of Natural History, the Gemological Institute of America, the California Institute of Technology and the Gemstone Research Laboratory in Lucerne (Switzerland). Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the rarest mineral in the world.
8. Taffeite - $20,000
This mineral exists in several colors - from gray-violet to lilac, even colorless specimens were found. It is a million times less common than diamonds. That is why little has been heard of him.
7 Tritium - $30,000
Industrial tritium is obtained by irradiating lithium-6 with neutrons in nuclear reactors according to the following reaction: It is used in military and civil devices (illumination of compasses, lenses for reading maps in the dark), sights, watches, key fobs, emergency inscriptions such as "exit".
6. Diamonds - $55,000 per gram
Diamonds are the third most expensive substance in the world. Diamonds require specific conditions to form, so they can be found on earth in the lithosphere and on meteorites that fall to the ground. Despite the abundance of diamonds, people continue to appreciate it as a rare and expensive mineral.
5 California 252 - $60,000 per gram
Obtained artificially in 1950 by Seaborg's group at the University of California at Berkeley. The first solid compounds of California - 249Cf2O3 and 249CfOCl were obtained in 1958. The isotope 252Cf found the greatest application. It is used as a powerful source of neutrons in neutron activation analysis, in radiation therapy of tumors. In addition, the 252Cf isotope is used in experiments to study spontaneous nuclear fission.
4. Americium - $140,000 per gram
Another transplutonium metal, with a very long half-life that can go up to 8,000 years.
Do not be afraid, americium-241 is most often used in production. It decays in 450 years, although we understand that this does not make it any easier for you. But this metal is extremely useful - equipment with americium-241 is also used to remove electrostatic charges from plastics, synthetic films and paper. It is also found inside some smoke detectors (~0.26 micrograms per detector).
3. Regolith (lunar soil) - $442,500 (per 0.6 g)
Regolith is what covers the surface of not only the Moon, but also all non-atmospheric planets.
Let's say the same Mars. But the Moon is the closest planet to us, which, theoretically, can be reached, and you can send lunar rovers there every week. What is regolith made of? Nothing remarkable: Ilmenite, Olivine, Anorthite, Pyroxene - all this can be found on Earth.
However, in 1993, at Sotheby’s, three “moon pebbles” with a total weight of 0.6 grams, brought to our planet by a Soviet research shuttle, were sold for $442,500. Why so expensive? So from the moon!
2. Graphene - $100 million (per sq. cm)
So you have to measure in centimeters. What it is? A two-dimensional allotropic modification of carbon, millions of times thinner than the thinnest human hair, so it's hard to look at it.
What the hell is he for? They say that on the basis of graphene it is possible to assemble a ballistic transistor, use it in supercapacitors to obtain rechargeable current sources and manufacture LEDs. Recently, Novoselov told and showed in pictures how you can get graphene at home, so if you want to get rich quick, look for instructions on the Internet.
1 Antimatter - $62.5 trillion per gram
The most expensive substance worth $62.5 trillion is antimatter or antimatter. In fact, its price is not calculable. When meeting with ordinary matter, it explodes, turning into light, so it is practically impossible to save it in anything.
However, during the experiment, scientists created antiprotons at the CERN accelerator and locked them in a vacuum chamber. At the same time, positrons were created using radioactive material, which were placed in another chamber. By combining them, antihydrogen was created.
1 ton of antimatter per year would cover the energy needs of the entire planet. $62.5 trillion is worth one gram of antihydrogen produced by today's methods.
, .slide 3
Rutherfordium (#104)
- Rutherfordium - from lat.
- 1964 - G. N. Flerov and co-workers
slide 4
The first report on the production of nuclei of element No. 104 was made in 1964 by a group of physicists working in Dubna under the leadership of G. N. Flerov, on the nuclear reaction
24294Pu + 2210Ne = 259104 + 510n
For the chemical identification of a new element, I. I. Zvara proposed a technique in which the volatility of the higher chloride of this element was studied. In 1966-1969, it was proved that the higher chloride of the resulting element No. 104 is volatile and, in its behavior when heated, is similar to the higher chlorides of the IVB group elements: zirconium and hafnium.
It is recognized that reliable data on the chemical identification of a new element by the group of I. I. Zvara, who studied the volatility of its higher halides - tetrachloride and tetrabromide, were obtained in Dubna in 1968-1970. In 1969-1970, at Berkeley (USA), information was obtained on the behavior of atoms of element No. 104 during extraction processes. Soviet researchers proposed the name "kurchatovy" for the new element, American - "rutherfordium".
In 1994, the International Commission on Naming New Elements proposed the name "dubnium" for element #104, which was used from 1995-97. In 1997 congress international organization chemists (IUPAC) finally assigned the name "rutherfordium" to element No. 104.
slide 5
Seaborgium (No. 106)
- Siborgium - in honor of the scientist G. Seaborg
slide 6
The half-life is measured in hundreds and thousands of seconds.
20782Pb + 5424Cr = 259106 + 2n
The reaction was carried out in 1974.
Slide 7
Bory (No. 107)
- Bohrium - in honor of N. Bor
- 1976 - G. N. Flerov, Yu. Ts. Oganesyan and co-workers (USSR)
Slide 8
Radioactive artificially produced chemical element with atomic number 107, in period 7 periodic system. There are borium nuclides with mass numbers 261 (half-life T1/2 11.8 μs) and 262 (half-life less than 1 ms).
The 262Bh nuclide was first obtained in 1981 in Darmstadt (Germany) as a result of the "cold" fusion of 209Bi and 54Cr nuclei, the 261Bh nuclide was synthesized in Darmstadt in 1989. 257 or 258 were made in 1976 by Yu. Ts. Oganesyan and collaborators in Dubna (USSR).
Bh has not been obtained in appreciable amounts, so its properties have not been studied. Named after the Danish physicist N. Bohr.
Slide 9
Meitnerium (No. 109)
- Meitnerium - in honor of Lise Meitner
- 1982 - Darmstadt (Germany)
Slide 10
A radioactive artificially obtained chemical element with atomic number 109. The name is given in honor of the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, who in 1917 was among the researchers who discovered a new chemical element - protactinium, and in 1939, together with the Danish physicist O. Frisch, substantiated the idea of fission of uranium nuclei under the influence of neutrons.
Meitnerium (its a-radioactive nuclide 266Mt with a half-life T1/2 of 3.5 ms) was first obtained in 1982 in Darmstadt (Germany) by irradiating a 20983Bi target with iron-58 ions accelerated to high speeds:
20983Bi + 5826Fe = 266109 Mt + n
Based on the a-decay product 262Bh (radionuclide of element No. 107), three meitnerium atoms were identified.
slide 11
Gadolinium (No. 64)
- Gadolinium - in honor of the chemist Gadolin
- 1880 - J. Marignac
slide 12
A black-green, asphalt-like mineral found in 1787 by Swedish army lieutenant Karl Arrhenius in an abandoned quarry near the town of Ytterby turned out to be truly miraculous. In addition to beryllium, oxygen, silicon, it contained small amounts of rare earth elements.
Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin soon discovered traces of an unknown earth in the mineral, which Andres Ekeberg called ytterbium, and the mineral from which it was isolated suggested to be called gadolinite.
Subsequently, the sample was repeatedly examined. Findings made by scientists proved that it has a very complex composition: according to the famous Finnish mineralogist Flint, gadolinite "played in history inorganic chemistry much big role than any other."
slide 13
Indeed, in addition to yttrium, erbium and terbium oxides were found in it. Later, however, it turned out that terbium oxide is also heterogeneous, because contained an admixture of a new element - ytterbium. But the "gadolinium earth" could not be found in this way ...
The discrepancy was eliminated in 18880 by the Swiss chemist de Marignac. In the mineral samarskite, he discovered an unknown earth and, on the advice of his friend and colleague Lecoq de Boisbaudran, named it gadolinium, initiating the tradition of naming new elements by the names of prominent scientists.
Metallic gadolinium was first obtained by Georges Urbain in 1935. And two years later, I. Tromb managed to purify it so that less than one percent of the impurities in the metal remained.
Slide 14
Curium (No. 96)
- Curium - in honor of M. and P. Curie
- 1944 - G. Seaborg and his collaborators by neutron bombardment of plutonium
slide 15
It should be said that Glenn Seaborg, Rolf James, Leon Morgan and Albert Ghiorso received curium first, and not the previous one. serial number americium. By irradiating a plutonium target in the cyclotron with alpha particles, scientists artificially created another element in 1944, calling it curium, in memory of Marie and Pierre Curie.
Later it was found that element No. 96 can be synthesized by irradiating americium with neutrons. In this case, the isotope emits a beta particle and turns into a curium isotope with a mass number of 242, the ultramicrochemical studies of which were first performed in 1947 by Werner and Perlman. There are currently 14 known isotopes of element 96.
Pierre and Marie Curie worked together and they have common discoveries ... to emphasize their equal rights, Seaborg and his colleagues came up with a trick: the first letter of the husband's surname and initial the wife's name was formed chemical symbol element number 96 (Cm).
The longest-lived isotope is 247Cm (1956 by P. Fields and colleagues in the USA). The metal was obtained in 1964.
slide 16
Einsteinium (No. 99)
- Einsteinium - in honor of A. Einstein
- G. Seaborg, A. Giorso and others - nuclear transformations
Slide 17
November 1, 1952 in the southern part Pacific Ocean On the Bikini Atoll, another American nuclear device exploded. It was so strong that a crater almost 2 km wide formed in the middle of the island, and the radioactive cloud shot up to a height of 20 km. Gradually growing, it reached a huge size.
Element number 99 was discovered in the belly of a thermonuclear fungus. jet planes, controlled by radio, cameras with paper filters were carried through the cloud. They were immediately taken to the radiation laboratory. University of California, where a group of scientists (Glenn Seaborg, Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso, J. Higgins and others) began to study the traces on the filters.
Slide 18
Employees of the Argonne National and Los Alamos Research Laboratories at that time collected decay products on coral reefs that had survived the explosion. After some time, the samples they found were also delivered to California.
It turned out that the atoms of uranium, which was part of thermonuclear device, are capable in some cases (during an explosion, for example) of capturing up to 17 neutrons. Under the influence of colossal temperature and incredible compression, the weight of its core increased to 255.
Overloaded with energy, it decays sequentially, forming heavy transuranic elements: californium, berkelium, curium, americium, plutonium, neptunium. And not only them. Having processed chemical methods delivered samples, scientists discovered isotopes of two unknown elements. One of them was named einsteinium - in honor of the great modern physicist Albert Einstein.
Slide 19
Fermiy (#100)
- Fermium - in honor of E. Fermi
- 1952 - G. Seaborg, A. Giorso and others - nuclear transformations
Slide 20
What happens in the womb atomic explosion? For millionths of a second, uranium nuclei are literally shaken by a real neutron flurry, which is generated by merging light elements.
Paper filters carried by planes through the radioactive cloud, and samples collected on the Bikini Atoll, at the epicenter of the explosion, confirmed: in addition to einsteinium, another element was formed. Glenn Seaborg and his assistants, having passed the solution through an ion exchange column, discovered a new substance. In memory of the famous Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, the element was named after him.
255Fm is a product of a thermonuclear explosion; the longest-lived isotope 257Fm (1967 F. Azaro, I. Perlman, USA)
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- Mendelevium - in honor of D. I. Mendeleev
- 1955 - G. Seaborg, A. Ghiorso and others.
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Mendelevium (No. 101)
Starting to synthesize element 101 in 1955, Glenn Seaborg and his assistants Albert Ghiorso, Bernard Garvey, Gregory Choppin and Stanley Thompson knew where to look for it. By that time in nuclear reactor several million einsteinium atoms were obtained. They were applied to gold foil, dried, and with the help of an analyzer - a device for measuring radiation energy - it was established that there really were einsteinium atoms on the target.
They placed a target with an einsteinium layer in a cyclotron and subjected it to intense bombardment with helium nuclei.
Scientists conducted more than ten experiments, obtaining 17 atoms of a new element. In recognition of the outstanding role of the great Russian chemist D. I. Mendeleev, Glenn Seaborg and his colleagues named the new substance mendelevium.
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Nobelium (#102)
Nobelium - in honor of Alfred Nobel
G. N. Flerov and a group of scientists from the University of California
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In July 1957, a neon inscription flashed over the building of the American newspaper The New York Times: "Element 102 discovered in Stockholm. It is christened Nobelium."
But it soon became clear that a group of Anglo-Swedish-American scientists had struck the bells prematurely. If you bombard curium with carbon nuclei. Then it is impossible to obtain a new substance with an atomic mass of 251 or 253 and a half-life of about 10 minutes. This was established by Soviet physicists headed by Academician Georgy Nikolaevich Flerov. They somewhat modified the conditions for obtaining the 102nd element. By bombarding a plutonium target with oxygen nuclei, our scientists proved that its isotopes have a higher mass number, and their half-life was about 40 seconds.
The "godfather" of almost all transuranium elements, Glenn Seaborg, undertook to judge who is right here. In April 1958, members of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory repeated the experience of the Swedes under his leadership. And what? They managed to obtain several tens of atoms of the 102nd element, but their lifetime, as measurements showed, did not exceed 3 seconds. This is closer to the truth, but also not true. A very delicate situation was created, three experiments - three dissimilar results.
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Then an agreement followed: until more reliable evidence was found, not to assign the name “Nobel” to 102. Only in March 1963 did a group of researchers led by Evgeny Ivanovich Donets prove that Soviet scientists had correctly determined the properties of the new element. Not on 12 atoms, like the Swedes, and not on several dozen obtained by American physicists, but on more than 700 half-lives of the 102nd, G. N. Flerov and E. Donets confirmed that there was no error in their conclusions.
According to G. N. Flerov, only the designation No remained from the nobel. And this word hardly needs translation.
All isotopes were obtained from nuclear reactions with heavy ions: 238U (22Ne, 5n) 255 102
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Lawrencium (No. 103)
- Laurencium - in honor of E. Lawrence
- 1961 - employees of the University of California under the leadership of A. Ghiorso
Slide 27
A reliable synthesis was carried out using the nuclear reaction 243Am (180.5n)255103 in 1965 (G. N. Flerov and co-workers in the USA).
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