Uma equipe de pesquisa internacional obteve novos insights sobre as propriedades químicas do elemento superpesado fleróvio - elemento 114 - nas instalações do acelerador da GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung em Darmstadt. As medições mostram que o fleróvio é o metal mais volátil da tabela periódica. Fleróvio é, portanto, o elemento mais pesado da tabela periódica que foi quimicamente estudado.
Com os resultados, publicados na revista Frontiers in Chemistry , o GSI contribui para o estudo da química de elementos superpesados ​​e abre novas perspectivas para a instalação internacional FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research), que está em construção.

Sob a liderança de grupos de Darmstadt e Mainz, os dois isótopos de fleróvio de vida mais longa atualmente conhecidos, fleróvio-288 e fleróvio-289, foram produzidos usando as instalações do acelerador no GSI/FAIR e foram quimicamente investigados na configuração experimental da TASCA. Na tabela periódica, o fleróvio é colocado abaixo do chumbo de metal pesado.

No entanto, as primeiras previsões postularam que os efeitos relativísticos da alta carga no núcleo do elemento superpesado em seus elétrons de valência levariam a um comportamento semelhante ao gás nobre, enquanto os mais recentes sugeriram um comportamento fracamente metálico. Dois experimentos químicos conduzidos anteriormente, um deles no GSI em Darmstadt em 2009, levaram a interpretações contraditórias.

Enquanto os três átomos observados no primeiro experimento foram usados ​​para inferir o comportamento do gás nobre, os dados obtidos no GSI indicaram caráter metálico baseado em dois átomos. Os dois experimentos foram incapazes de estabelecer claramente o caráter. Os novos resultados mostram que, como esperado, o fleróvio é inerte, mas capaz de formar ligações químicas mais fortes que os gases nobres, se as condições forem adequadas. Fleróvio é consequentemente o metal mais volátil da tabela periódica.

Fleróvio é, portanto, o elemento químico mais pesado cujo caráter foi estudado experimentalmente. Com a determinação das propriedades químicas, a GSI/FAIR confirma sua posição de liderança na pesquisa de elementos superpesados.

"Explorar os limites da tabela periódica tem sido um pilar do programa de pesquisa no GSI desde o início e será na FAIR no futuro. O fato de que alguns átomos já podem ser usados ​​para explorar as primeiras propriedades químicas fundamentais, dando uma indicação de como grandes quantidades dessas substâncias se comportariam é fascinante e possível graças à poderosa instalação do acelerador e à experiência da colaboração mundial", diz o professor Paolo Giubellino, diretor administrativo científico da GSI e da FAIR. "Com FAIR, estamos trazendo o universo para o laboratório e explorando os limites da matéria, também dos elementos químicos."

Seis semanas de experimentação

Os experimentos realizados no GSI/FAIR para esclarecer a natureza química do fleróvio duraram um total de seis semanas. Para isso, quatro trilhões de íons de cálcio-48 foram acelerados a dez por cento da velocidade da luz a cada segundo pelo acelerador linear GSI UNILAC e disparados contra um alvo contendo plutônio-244, resultando na formação de alguns átomos de fleróvio por dia.

The formed flerovium atoms recoiled from the target into the gas-filled separator TASCA. In its magnetic field, the formed isotopes, flerovium-288 and flerovium-289, which have lifetimes on the order of a second, were separated from the intense calcium ion beam and from byproducts of the nuclear reaction. They penetrated a thin film, thus entering the chemistry apparatus, where they were stopped in a helium/argon gas mixture.

This gas mixture flushed the atoms into the COMPACT gas chromatography apparatus, where they first came into contact with silicon oxide surfaces. If the bond to silicon oxide was too weak, the atoms were transported further, over gold surfaces—first those kept at room temperature, and then over increasingly colder ones, down to about –160 °C.

The surfaces were deposited as a thin coating on special nuclear radiation detectors, which registered individual atoms by spatially resolved detection of the radioactive decay. Since the decay products undergo further radioactive decay after a short lifetime, each atom leaves a characteristic signature of several events from which the presence of a flerovium atom can unambiguously be inferred.

One atom per week for chemistry

"Thanks to the combination of the TASCA separator, the chemical separation and the detection of the radioactive decays, as well as the technical development of the gas chromatography apparatus since the first experiment, we have succeeded in increasing the efficiency and reducing the time required for the chemical separation to such an extent that we were able to observe one flerovium atom every week," explains Dr. Alexander Yakushev of GSI/FAIR, the spokesperson for the international experiment collaboration.

Six such decay chains were found in the data analysis. Since the setup is similar to that of the first GSI experiment, the newly obtained data could be combined with the two atoms observed at that time and analyzed together.

None of the decay chains appeared within the range of the silicon oxide-coated detector, indicating that flerovium does not form a substantial bond with silicon oxide. Instead, all were transported with the gas into the gold-coated portion of the apparatus within less than a tenth of a second.

The eight events formed two zones:a first in the region of the gold surface at room temperature, and a second in the later part of the chromatograph, at temperatures so low that a very thin layer of ice covered the gold, so that adsorption occurred on ice.

From experiments with lead, mercury and radon atoms, which served as representatives of heavy metals, weakly reactive metals as well as noble gases, it was known that lead forms a strong bond with silicon oxide, while mercury reaches the gold detector. Radon even flies over the first part of the gold detector at room temperature and is only partially retained at the lowest temperatures. Flerovium results could be compared with this behavior.

Apparently, two types of interaction of a flerovium species with the gold surface were observed. The deposition on gold at room temperature indicates the formation of a relatively strong chemical bond, which does not occur in noble gases. On the other hand, some of the atoms appear never to have had the opportunity to form such bonds and have been transported over long distances of the gold surface, down to the lowest temperatures.

This detector range represents a trap for all elemental species. This complicated behavior can be explained by the morphology of the gold surface:it consists of small gold clusters, at the boundaries of which very reactive sites occur, apparently allowing the flerovium to bond. The fact that some of the flerovium atoms were able to reach the cold region indicates that only the atoms that encountered such sites formed a bond, unlike mercury, which was retained on gold in any case.

Thus, the chemical reactivity of flerovium is weaker than that of the volatile metal mercury. The current data cannot completely rule out the possibility that the first deposition zone on gold at room temperature is due to the formation of flerovium molecules. It also follows from this hypothesis, though, that flerovium is chemically more reactive than a noble gas element.

The exotic plutonium target material for the production of the flerovium was provided in part by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), U.S.. In the Department of Chemistry's TRIGA site at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the material was electrolytically deposited onto thin titanium foils fabricated at GSI/FAIR.

"There is not much of this material available in the world, and we are fortunate to have been able to use it for these experiments that would not otherwise be possible," said Dr. Dawn Shaughnessy, head of the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division at LLNL. "This international collaboration brings together skills and expertise from around the world to solve difficult scientific problems and answer long-standing questions, such as the chemical properties of flerovium."

"Our accelerator experiment was complemented by a detailed study of the detector surface in collaboration with several GSI departments as well as the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics at JGU. This has proven to be key to understanding the chemical character of flerovium. As a result, the data from the two earlier experiments are now understandable and compatible with our new conclusions," says Christoph Düllmann, professor of nuclear chemistry at JGU and head of the research groups at GSI and at the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), a collaboration between GSI and JGU.

How the relativistic effects affect its neighbors, the elements nihonium (element 113) and moscovium (element 115), which have also only been officially recognized in recent years, is the subject of subsequent experiments. Initial data have already been obtained as part of the FAIR Phase 0 program at GSI. Furthermore, the researchers expect that significantly more stable isotopes of flerovium exist, but these have not yet been found. However, the researchers now already know that they can expect to find a metallic element. + Explorar mais

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