Darmstadtium
⚛️ In Your World
Darmstadtium 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, darmstadtium-281, has a half-life of about 12.7 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
Darmstadtium was first synthesized on November 9, 1994, by an international team led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. They achieved this by bombarding a lead-208 target with accelerated nickel-62 ions, producing a few atoms of darmstadtium-269. The element was officially named in 2003 after the city of Darmstadt, where the GSI facility is located, continuing a tradition of naming elements after the location of their discovery.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | Unknown |
| Boiling Point | Unknown |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d⁸7s² (predicted) |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Darmstadtium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis. All work with darmstadtium is conducted in specialized particle accelerator facilities with remote handling to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.