Copernicium
⚛️ In Your World
Copernicium is a synthetic, superheavy element that has only ever been created a few atoms at a time in particle accelerators. Its most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of about 28 seconds. Due to its extreme instability and the fact that only a handful of atoms have ever been made, it has no applications outside of fundamental scientific research. Its only purpose is to help scientists understand the behavior and limits of atomic nuclei.
📖 The Discovery Story
Copernicium was first synthesized on February 9, 1996, by an international team led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. They achieved this by bombarding a target of lead-208 with accelerated zinc-70 ions, producing a single atom of copernicium-277. The element was officially named in 2010 in honor of the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed the heliocentric model of the universe.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Gas or Volatile Liquid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | Unknown |
| Boiling Point | 357 K (84 °C, 183 °F) (predicted) |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d¹⁰7s² (predicted) |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Copernicium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis. All work with copernicium is conducted in specialized particle accelerator facilities with remote handling to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.