Californium

This article is about the chemical element. For other uses, see Californium (disambiguation).

Californium, 98Cf
A very small disc of silvery metal, magnified to show its metallic texture
Californium
Pronunciation/ˌkæləˈfɔːrniəm/ ​(KAL-ə-FOR-nee-əm)
Appearancesilvery
Mass number[251]
Californium in the periodic table
Hydrogen Helium
Lithium Beryllium Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine Neon
Sodium Magnesium Aluminium Silicon Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Argon
Potassium Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Gallium Germanium Arsenic Selenium Bromine Krypton
Rubidium Strontium Yttrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Technetium Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Indium Tin Antimony Tellurium Iodine Xenon
Caesium Barium Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury (element) Thallium Lead Bismuth Polonium Astatine Radon
Francium Radium Actinium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium Lawrencium Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium Darmstadtium Roentgenium Copernicium Nihonium Flerovium Moscovium Livermorium Tennessine Oganesson
Dy
↑
Cf
↓
—
berkelium ← californium → einsteinium
Atomic number (Z)98
Groupf-block groups (no number)
Periodperiod 7
Block  f-block
Electron configuration[Rn] 5f10 7s2[1]
Electrons per shell2, 8, 18, 32, 28, 8, 2
Physical properties
Phase at STPsolid
Melting point1173 K ​(900 °C, ​1652 °F)[2]
Boiling point1743 K ​(1470 °C, ​2678 °F) (estimation)[3]
Density (near r.t.)15.1 g/cm3[2]
Atomic properties
Oxidation statescommon: +3
+2,[4] +4,[4] +5[5][6]
ElectronegativityPauling scale: 1.3[7]
Ionization energies
  • 1st: 608 kJ/mol[8]
Color lines in a spectral range
Spectral lines of californium
Other properties
Natural occurrencesynthetic
Crystal structure ​double hexagonal close-packed (dhcp)
Double hexagonal close packed crystal structure for californium
Mohs hardness3–4[9]
CAS Number7440-71-3[2]
History
Namingafter California, where it was discovered
DiscoveryLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1950)
Isotopes of californium
Main isotopes[10][11] Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
248Cf synth 333.5 d α100% 244Cm
SF<0.01% –
249Cf synth 351 y α100% 245Cm
SF≪0.01% –
250Cf synth 13.08 y α99.9% 246Cm
SF0.08% –
251Cf synth 898 y α 247Cm
252Cf synth 2.645 y α96.9% 248Cm
SF3.09% –
253Cf synth 17.81 d β−99.7% 253Es
α0.31% 249Cm
254Cf synth 60.5 d SF99.7% –
α0.31% 250Cm
 Category: Californium
| references

Californium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Cf and atomic number 98. It was first synthesized in 1950 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory[12] (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory) by bombarding curium with alpha particles (helium-4 ions). It is an actinide element, the sixth transuranium element to be synthesized, and has the second-highest atomic mass of all elements that have been produced in amounts large enough to see with the naked eye (after einsteinium). It was named after the university and the U.S. state of California.

Two crystalline forms exist at normal pressure: one above and one below 900 °C (1,650 °F). A third form exists at high pressure. Californium slowly tarnishes in air at room temperature. Californium compounds are dominated by the +3 oxidation state. The most stable of californium's twenty known isotopes is californium-251, with a half-life of 898 years. This short half-life means the element is not found in significant quantities in the Earth's crust.[a] 252Cf, with a half-life of about 2.645 years, is the most common isotope used and is produced at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the United States and Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Russia.

Californium is one of the few transuranium elements with practical uses. Most of these applications exploit the fact that certain isotopes of californium emit neutrons. For example, californium can be used to help start up nuclear reactors, and it is used as a source of neutrons when studying materials using neutron diffraction and neutron spectroscopy. It can also be used in nuclear synthesis of higher mass elements; oganesson (element 118) was synthesized by bombarding californium-249 atoms with calcium-48 ions. Users of californium must take into account radiological concerns and the element's ability to disrupt the formation of red blood cells by bioaccumulating in skeletal tissue.

  1. ^ CRC 2006, p. 1.14.
  2. ^ a b c CRC 2006, p. 4.56.
  3. ^ Joseph Jacob Katz; Glenn Theodore Seaborg; Lester R. Morss (1986). The Chemistry of the actinide elements. Chapman and Hall. p. 1038. ISBN 9780412273704. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  4. ^ a b Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8.
  5. ^ Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 1265. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8.
  6. ^ Kovács, Attila; Dau, Phuong D.; Marçalo, Joaquim; Gibson, John K. (2018). "Pentavalent Curium, Berkelium, and Californium in Nitrate Complexes: Extending Actinide Chemistry and Oxidation States". Inorg. Chem. 57 (15). American Chemical Society: 9453–9467. doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b01450. OSTI 1631597. PMID 30040397. S2CID 51717837.
  7. ^ Emsley 1998, p. 50.
  8. ^ CRC 2006, p. 10.204.
  9. ^ CRC 1991, p. 254.
  10. ^ CRC 2006, p. 11.196.
  11. ^ Sonzogni, Alejandro A. (Database Manager), ed. (2008). "Chart of Nuclides". National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
  12. ^ "Californium (Cf) | AMERICAN ELEMENTS ®". American Elements: The Materials Science Company. Retrieved November 30, 2023.


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