Description
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Nobelium is a synthetic element of the actinide family. Little information is known about this element, and it is predicted to have a silver, white, or grey color in its solid state. Nobelium has an atomic number of 259, a melting point of 1521 °F, and the boiling point it not yet known. Since nobelium is still being studied, and synthesizing nobelium is complicated, it currently has no known commercial uses; there are no predicted commercial uses for nobelium at this current date.
Isolation
Nobelium does not occur in nature in any form, it can only be artificially synthesized using specialized equipment and materials.
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The synthesis of nobelium has proven to be difficult due to the short half life of the isotopes that are formed. The most stable isotope of nobelium, number 259, has a half life of 58 minutes. The short half life of this product also interferes with further research on the chemical properties of nobelium. Nobelium is synthesized and isolated by bombarding the curium element with carbon ions. Curium itself must be artificially created using plutonium bombardment with alpha particles. Nobelium was not isolated until 1958 when a heavy-ion linear accelerator was used to bombard a curium isotope with carbon ions. Additional isotopes of nobelium have extremely short half lives. Some of these isotopes have a half life of only 1.7 minutes, and other isotopes have a half life of less than 56 seconds. Isolated nobelium is a radioactive element, and the toxicity levels and dangers of this element are still not known.