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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
Alexander Yakushev Alexander Yakushev 1,2*Jadambaa Khuyagbaatar Jadambaa Khuyagbaatar 1,2Christoph E. Düllmann Christoph E. Düllmann 1,2,3Michael Block Michael Block 1,2,3R A. Cantemir R A. Cantemir 1D M. Cox D M. Cox 4D Dietzel D Dietzel 1,3F Giacoppo F Giacoppo 1,2Y Hrabar Y Hrabar 4M Iliaš M Iliaš 1,2E Jäger E Jäger 1J Krier J Krier 1D Krupp D Krupp 5Nikolaus Kurz Nikolaus Kurz 1Lotte Lens Lotte Lens 5S Löchner S Löchner 1Ch Mokry Ch Mokry 2,3P Mošať P Mošať 1V Pershina V Pershina 1S Raeder S Raeder 1D Rudolph D Rudolph 4Jörg Runke Jörg Runke 1,3L G. Sarmiento L G. Sarmiento 4B Schausten B Schausten 1U Scherer U Scherer 5P Thörle-Pospiech P Thörle-Pospiech 2,3N Trautmann N Trautmann 3M Wegrzecki M Wegrzecki 6P Wieczorek P Wieczorek 1
  • 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

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    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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