Mendelevium

HistoryThe element first was made by Ghiorso, Harvey, Choppin, Thompson, and Seaborg in 1955 in Berkeley, California. It was synthesized by bombardment of einsteinium-253 with alpha particles of 41 MeV energy in a 60-inch cyclotron. The element was named Mendelevium in honor of Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev. Mendelevium –258 isotope with a half-life of 60 days was discovered in 1967. The element has no commercial use except in research to synthesize isotopes of other transuranium elements.

HistoryThe element name of Md derives from the Russian chemist “Dimitrii Mendeleev” who developed the Periodic Table of the chemical elements. Credit for the first synthesis of this element is given American chemists Albert Ghiorso, Bernard G. Harvey, Gregory R. Choppin, and Stanley G. Thompson at the University of California lab in Berkeley, California under Glenn T. Seaborg in 1958, who used the nuclear reaction 253Es(4He, 2n) 255Md and the nuclear reaction 253Es (4He, n) 256Md. The longest half-life associated with this unstable element is 51 day 258Md.