Physical properties
Ununpentium is also known as eka-bismuth because it is homologous to the element bismuthlocated at the bottom of Group 15 (VA). Its melting point, boiling point, and densityare unknown as are many of its other properties. Several isotopes of element 115 were producedby the nuclear reaction that bombarded calcium into a target americium, resulting inthe fusion of the calcium nuclei with the americium nuclei to form isotopes of element 115(ununpentium).
Because only a few atoms of ununpentium have been produced and they exist for only afraction of second, this metallic element’s melting point, boiling point, density, and severalother properties have not been determined.
Isotopes
There are 5 known isotopes of the element ununpentium, ranging from Uup-287 to Uup-291. The first two isotopes synthetically produced and confirmed were Uup-287 and Uup-288. Ununpentium’s most stable isotope is Uup-288, which has a half-lifeof 87 milliseconds. It decays by alpha emission into ununtrium (element 113).
Origin of Name
Ununpentium follows IUPAC’s temporary naming system for element
115.
History
A joint Russian and American team of physicists created two new super heavy elements—115 and 113—that provide more support for the “island of stability” concept. Theexperiments were conducted between July 14 and August 10 in 2003, but the results of theexperiments were not published until February 2004. The experiments were conducted in theJoint Institute of Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, and also involved the scientists of the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory located at Berkeley, California. Only four atoms of two isotopes of ununpentium (element 115) were produced, and the results were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Following is the nuclear reaction that produced these four atoms:
20Ca-48 +
95Am-243 →
115Uup-287 + 4 neutrons, and
20Ca-48 +
95Am-243 →
115Uup-288 + 3 neutrons.
It should be noted that these two isotopes of ununpentium (element 115), very soon aftercreation, decayed into isotopes of ununtrium (element 113), unununium (element 111), andso on as low as unnilpentium (element 105). All of these reactions were recorded in just fractions of a second.
It seems that element 115 (ununpentium) caught the interest of the UFO conspiracytheoryculture of pseudoscience. One advocate stated that the “sports model” of a flying diskused ununpentium-115 for fuel that “stepped up” to ununhexium. Further, Uuh-116’s decayproducts included large quantities of “antimatter” that was milled to form discs of antimatterthat could then be used to produce antigravity energy as a force to propel UFOs. One pseudoscientistsuggested that the U.S. government had 500 pounds of element 115, even thoughonly a few atoms have ever been produced.
Hazard
Although the isotopes of ununpentium (element 115) are radioactive, there is not muchrisk of radiation poisoning since there are so few atoms produced.
