Description
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Ununhexium is a synthetic element that is predicted to be a poor metal. It is a super heavy element with an atomic number of 302. The physical appearance, melting point, boiling point, and other chemical traits of this element are not known. Based on studies conducted during the brief synthesis of ununhexium, it is predicted to have chemical traits similar to polonium; for this reason it is sometimes called eka-polonium. There are no current commercial uses, or predicted uses, for ununhexium.
Isolation
Ununhexium does not exist in nature in any form. This element can only be synthesized for brief amounts of time in minute quantities.
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Ununhexium was synthesized until the year 2000. There were earlier claims of its synthesis in 1999, but this claim turned out to be fraudulent. To this day, ununhexium has only been synthesized in very minute quantities, and just a few atoms of it have ever been produced. Isotopes of ununhexium that are created go through alpha decay so rapidly that further research on this element is for now almost impossible. The isotopic form of ununhexium can be briefly synthesized by reacting californium isotopes with calcium isotopes. During this procedure, the ions of the calcium isotope, number 48, are used to bombard a target composed of the californium isotope, number 249, to produce the isotopic form of ununhexium, number 292, and four neutrons. The first compound to result from the reaction between californium and calcium produced ununoctium which underwent rapid alpha decay to form ununhexium. The ununhexium isotope then decays within a millisecond to form ununquadium which then rapidly decays in 47 milliseconds to an isotopic form of helium.