What is Mendelevium

Mendelevium (pronounced as men-deh-LEE-vee-em) is a radioactive metal that belongs to the family of actinides and represented by the chemical symbol Md. Its most stable isotope is Md-258 with a half-life of 51.5 days ^{[1, 4]}.

History

Origin of its Name: The element is named in honor of Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist who formulated one of the first periodic tables ^[1].

Who Discovered it: Albert Ghiorso and his team of researchers comprising of Gregory Chopin, Bernard Harvey, Glenn Seaborg, and Stanley Thompson were responsible for its discovery ^[1].

When and Where was Mendelevium Discovered

In 1955, Ghiorso and his team at Berkeley, California, conducted an all-night experiment where a sample of einsteinium-253 was bombarded with alpha particles in a cyclotron to produce a new isotope, later detected as mendelevium-256 with a half-life of about 78 minutes. After this, several other isotopes of the new metal were synthesized at the laboratory ^[1].

Identification
Atomic number	101 [1]
CAS number	7440-11-1 [1]
Position in the periodic table [1]	Group	Period	Block
	Actinides	7	f

Properties and Characteristics of Mendelevium

General Properties
Relative atomic mass	258 [1]
Atomic mass	258 atomic mass units [5]
Physical Properties
Color/appearance	Unknown [1]
Melting point/freezing point	827°C (1521°F) [1]
Boiling point	Unknown [1]
Density	Unknown [1]
State at standard room temperature (solid/liquid/gas)	Solid [1]
Electrical conductivity	Unknown [1]
Chemical Properties
Oxidation state/Oxidation number		+2, +3 [1]

Atomic Data of Mendelevium (Element 101)

What is Mendelevium Used for

The short half-life of Md makes it difficult to study its properties in detail, and determine any uses. As a result, it is artificially synthesized whenever required for scientific studies ^[1].

Interesting Facts

• As naming the element after a Russian chemist was a bold decision taken in the middle of the Cold War, Glenn Seaborg had to take permission from the U.S government before officially declaring the discovery of mendelevium ^[7].
• The proposed symbol for the element was Mv, but IUPAC changed it to Md in 1957, at their assembly in Paris ^[7].

Mendelevium Cost

Since the element is artificially prepared in the laboratory, it cannot be commercially availed.

References

1. http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/101/mendelevium
2. https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele101.html
3. https://www.chemicool.com/elements/mendelevium.html
4. https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/iso101.html
5. http://hobart.k12.in.us/ksms/PeriodicTable/mendelevium.htm
6. http://periodictable.com/Elements/101/data.html
7. https://www.thoughtco.com/mendelevium-facts-4126518