Description
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Bohrium is a synthetic element that is a transition metal. Other than the atomic weight of 272, not much else is known about bohrium. Whether it is a solid or a liquid has not yet been predicted, nor has its appearance. Since little is known about this element, there are no commercial uses for it, nor any predicted commercial uses. It is thought however that bohrium may have chemical traits similar to the element rhenium therefore it is also sometimes called eka-rhenium.
Isolation
Bohrium does not exist in nature in any type of form. This element must be synthesized using specialized equipment and procedures.
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Bohrium can currently only be produced in extremely small amounts for very brief periods of time. Research and studies on this element are hindered due to the fact that it takes so much energy and complex processes to produce, and the isotopes of bohrium also have very short half lives. The very tiny amounts of bohrium that have been synthesized were so small that the physical appearance of this element are still unknown; techniques using chromatography were the only processes that could be used to predicted the chemical traits of bohrium.
The first time bohrium was produced was in 1976. At that time, researchers bombarded the element bismuth with chromium nuclei. Through this procedure they produced the isotope 261 of bohrium. The second time this element was synthesized was in 1981. This procedure used the same procedures with more specialized equipment to create an isotope of bohrium that was a little more stable than the 261 isotope. The most stable isotope of bohrium, number 267, that has been synthesized has a half life of only 22 seconds.