Darmstadtium - Experimental Chemistry

Experimental Chemistry

Unambiguous determination of the chemical characteristics of darmstadtium has yet to have been established due to the short half-lives of darmstadtium isotopes and a limited number of likely volatile compounds that could be studied on a very small scale. One of the few darmstadtium compounds that are likely to be sufficiently volatile is darmstadtium hexafluoride (DsF₆), as its lighter homologue platinum hexafluoride (PtF₆) is volatile above 60 ºC and therefore the analogous compound of darmstadtium might also be sufficiently volatile; a volatile octafluoride (DsF₈) might also be possible. For chemical studies to be carried out on a transactinide, at least four atoms must be produced, the half-life of the isotope used must be at least 1 second, and the rate of production must be at least one atom per week. Even though the half-life of 281Ds, the most stable confirmed darmstadtium isotope, is 11 seconds, long enough to perform chemical studies, another obstacle is the need to increase the rate of production of darmstadtium isotopes and allow experiments to carry on for weeks or months so that statistically significant results can be obtained. Separation and detection must be carried out continuously to separate out the darmstadtium isotopes and automated systems can then experiment on the gas-phase and solution chemistry of darmstadtium as the yields for heavier elements are predicted to be smaller than those for lighter elements; some of the separation techniques used for bohrium and hassium could be reused. However, the experimental chemistry of darmstadtium has not received as much attention as that of the heavier elements copernicium and flerovium.

The more neutron-rich darmstadtium isotopes are the most stable and are thus more promising for chemical studies; however, they can only be produced indirectly from the alpha decay of heavier elements, and indirect synthesis methods are not favourable for chemical studies. The more neutron-rich isotopes 276Ds and 277Ds might be produced directly in the reaction between thorium-232 and calcium-48, but the yield is expected to be low. Furthermore, this reaction has already been tested without success, and more recent experiments that have successfully synthesized 277Ds using indirect methods show that it has a short half-life of 5.7 ms, not long enough to perform chemical studies.