Rutherfordium
Rutherfordio (Rf, Z=104)
- Date
- 1964 · confidence medium
- Place
- Dubna, Russia (JINR) and Berkeley, United States
- Credited to
- Georgy Flyorov (Dubna) and Albert Ghiorso (Berkeley)
- People
- 👤 Albert Ghiorso1915–2010
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Dubna claimed spontaneous fission of Rf-260 in 1964 (kurchatovium); Berkeley identified alpha decay chains in 1969 (rutherfordium). The IUPAC shared the credit in 1997 and adopted the American name.
Called kurchatovium (Ku) in the USSR until 1997.
What it led to
- First transactinide and 7th-row d-block element
- Chemistry of individual atoms in the gas phase
- Resolution of the transfermium wars (1997)
Built on
- U-300 cyclotron
- HILAC
Made possible
- One-atom-at-a-time chemistry