Californium
Californium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Cf and atomic number 98. The element was first synthesized in 1950 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by bombarding curium with alpha particles. Two crystalline forms exist for californium under normal pressure: one above and one below 900 °C. Californium is one of the few transuranium elements that have practical applications.
About Californium in brief
Californium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Cf and atomic number 98. The element was first synthesized in 1950 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by bombarding curium with alpha particles. Two crystalline forms exist for californium under normal pressure: one above and one below 900 °C. A third form exists at high pressure. Californium is one of the few transuranium elements that have practical applications. It can be used to help start up nuclear reactors, and it is employed as a source of neutrons when studying materials using neutron diffraction and neutron spectroscopy. Its chemical properties are predicted to be similar to other primarily 3+ valence actinide elements and the element dysprosium. It forms alloys with lanthanide metals but little is known about the resulting materials. California is only the second-highest atomic mass of all the elements produced in amounts large enough to see with the unaided eye. Attempts to reduce or reduce the +3 ion to +3 covalent ion in water-soluble chloride, nitrate, perchlorate, and sulfate is precipitated as a fluoride precipitated precipitated water. The +4 oxidation state is strong oxidizing agents, and those in the +2 state are strong reducing agents. It slowly tarnishes in air at room temperature with the rate at which moisture is added to the air.
CalifornIUM reacts when heated with hydrogen, nitrogen, dry hydrogen and a chalcogen; reactions with mineral acids have failed. Twenty radioisotopes have been characterized, the most stable being 898-251 with a half-life of 898 years. The most common isotope used is Californium-252, which is produced at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. and the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Russia. It is the heaviest actinides to exhibit covalently bonded bonds to other atoms or ions. It has an estimated boiling point of 1,745 K and is malleable and is easily cut with a razor blade. Below 51 K it is either ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic, between 48 and 66 K it is antiferromagnetic, and above 160 K it is paramagnetic. The element’s bulk modulus is 50±5 GPa, similar to trivalent lanthanides metals but smaller than more familiar metals, such as aluminium. Its melting point is 900 ± 30 °C and it has a melting point of 900 ± 30 °K and a boiling point of 1,745 K. It starts to vaporize above 300 ° C when exposed to a vacuum. It also has two crystalline form at standard atmospheric pressure: a double-hexagonal close-packed form dubbed alpha and a face-centered cubic form designated beta.
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This page is based on the article Californium published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 10, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
