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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1474820
Manifestation of relativistic effects in the chemical properties of nihonium and moscovium revealed by gas chromatography studies
Provisionally accepted- 1 GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
- 2 Helmholtz-Institut Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
- 3 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
- 4 Lund University, Lund, Skane County, Sweden
- 5 Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 6 Lukasiewicz Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland
Chemical reactivity of the superheavy elements nihonium (Nh, element 113) and moscovium (Mc, element 115) has been studied by the gas-solid chromatography method using a new combined chromatography and detection setup. The Mc isotope, 288 Mc, was produced in the nuclear fusion reaction of 48 Ca ions with 243 Am targets at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum Darmstadt, Germany. After isolating 288 Mc ions in the gas-filled separator TASCA, adsorption of 288 Mc and its decay product 284 Nh on silicon oxide and gold surfaces was investigated. As a result of this work, the values of the adsorption enthalpy of Nh and Mc on the silicon oxide surface were determined for the first time, -∆ (Mc) = 54 kJ/mol and -∆ (Nh) = 58 kJ/mol (68% c.i.). The obtained ΔHads values are in good agreement with results of advanced relativistic calculations. Both elements, Nh and Mc, were shown to interact more weakly with the silicon oxide surface than their lighter homologues Tl and Bi, respectively. However, Nh and Mc turned out to be more reactive than the neighbouring closed-shell and quasi-closed-shell elements copernicium (Cn, element 112) and flerovium (Fl, element 114), respectively. The established trend is explained by the influence of strong relativistic effects on the valence atomic orbitals of these elements.
Keywords: Superheavy element chemistry, element 113 nihonium, element 115 moscovium, Gas phase chromatography, Recoil separators
Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 06 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Yakushev, Khuyagbaatar, Düllmann, Block, Cantemir, Cox, Dietzel, Giacoppo, Hrabar, Iliaš, Jäger, Krier, Krupp, Kurz, Lens, Löchner, Mokry, Mošať, Pershina, Raeder, Rudolph, Runke, Sarmiento, Schausten, Scherer, Thörle-Pospiech, Trautmann, Wegrzecki and Wieczorek. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alexander Yakushev, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
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