Tennessine
⚛️ In Your World
Tennessine 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, tennessine-294, has a half-life of about 51 milliseconds. 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
Tennessine was first synthesized in 2010 by a joint team of Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, and American scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The team, led by physicist Yuri Oganessian, produced tennessine by bombarding a target of berkelium-249 with accelerated calcium-48 ions. The element was officially named in 2016 in honor of the state of Tennessee, recognizing the crucial role of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the discovery.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | 623–823 K (predicted) |
| Boiling Point | 883 K (610 °C, 1130 °F) (predicted) |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴6d¹⁰7s²7p⁵ (predicted) |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Tennessine is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis. All work with tennessine is conducted in specialized particle accelerator facilities with remote handling to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.