Fermium

Chemical Formula

Fm

Background

Fermium is the eighth transuranium element of the actinide series to be discovered. Ghiorso and co-workers identified it in 1952, in the debris from a thermonuclear explosion in the Pacific by collaborative research institutes.

The isotope produced was the 20-h Fm²⁵⁵. Between the years 1953 and 1954 the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockholm bombarded ²³⁸U with ¹⁶O ions, where they isolated a 30-min α-emitter, which was ascribed 100²⁵⁰.

Chemical properties of fermium have only been possible on tracer amounts, and in normal aqueous media only the (III) oxidation state appears to exist. Sixteen (16) isotopes of fermium are known to exist. ²⁵⁷Fm, with a half-life of approximately 100.5 days is the longest. ²⁵⁰Fm, has a half-life of 30min, and has been shown to be a product of decay of element 102²⁵⁴.

It should be noted that, it was by the chemical identification of ²⁵⁰Fm that allowed  element 102 (nobelium) to be produced with certainty.

Fermium has no known commercial value.

Primary author: AZoM.com