Atomic Properties of Ts
- Atomic Number of Ts
- 117
- Atomic Mass of Ts
- 294.0000 u
- Electron Configuration
- [Rn] 5f14 6d10 7s2 7p5
- Electronegativity
- —
- Block
- p-block
- Group
- 17
- Period
- 7
Tennessine began with a target that took patience to make. Oak Ridge National Laboratory produced berkelium-249, researchers prepared it as a target, and a beam of calcium-48 struck it at JINR in Dubna. In a tiny fraction of collisions, the nuclei fused and ultimately formed atoms of element 117. Detectors identified those atoms through linked alpha decays, not through a sample anyone could see.
The first reported synthesis came in 2010 through collaboration among Dubna, Oak Ridge, and Lawrence Livermore researchers. The name tennessine honors Tennessee and the institutions in that state that contributed to superheavy-element research. Its ending places it with the halogens, alongside fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine.
Placement does not guarantee familiar behavior. Tennessine atoms contain so many protons that their electrons experience strong relativistic effects. Calculations predict that its chemistry may differ substantially from lighter halogens, but the known isotopes decay within milliseconds and only a handful of atoms have been produced. Claims about color, phase, bonding, or bulk reactivity are predictions until experiments measure them.
Tennessine-293, recorded with a half-life around 14 milliseconds, is useful because its decay contributes evidence about the stability and structure of superheavy nuclei. It has no practical application outside research. Even describing it as a solid refers to a predicted ordinary-condition state, not an observed piece of material.
This Collection Agent collects institutions as much as electrons. A reactor-produced target, an accelerator beam, detectors, and international analysis all had to align. The result vanished almost immediately, but its decay chain secured a permanent place at atomic number 117.