Discovery Information |
Who:
A. Ghiorso
, Nurmia, Harris, K.A.Y. Eskola, and P.L. Eskola |
When: 1969 |
Where: Berkeley California |
|
Name Origin |
In honor of Ernest R. Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist. |
|
Sources |
Bombarding
plutonium
with accelerated 113 to 115
MeV
Neon ions. Also by bombarding a target of Cf249 with C12 nuclei of 71
MeV
, and C13 nuclei of 69
MeV
. |
|
Uses |
It has no uses. |
|
Notes |
Evidence of element 104 was first detected at the Joint Nuclear Research Institute at Dubna (USSR) in 1964 by bombarding plutonium with accelerated 113 to 115
MeV
neon ions. By measuring fission tracks in a special glass with a microscope, the scientists detected an
isotope
that decays by spontaneous fission. The
isotope
was thought to be Rf260 with a half life of 0.15 to 0.3 seconds. It was not until 1969, however that the group in Berkley were able to chemically separate element 104 and positively identified two possibly three
isotopes
of the element. |
In August of 1997 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announced the official naming of this element as Rutherfordium with the atomic symbol of Rf. The IUPAC choose Rutherfordium over the Russians' choice of Kurchatovium, which was in honor of Igor Vasilevich Kurchatov (1903-1960), former Head of Soviet Nuclear Research. |
Element 104 was previously known as Unnilquadium; from the latin from "one zero four". |